YapStone Overview
Online Payments for Many Different Sectors
Founded in 1999, YapStone is a global merchant account provider offering cloud-based web and mobile payment processing. Formerly known as “Paymerica,” Yapstone primarily offers payment processing solutions for property managers. Most notably, the company is a payment processing partner of growing vacation rental platforms like Homeaway and VRBO. There is some evidence that the company is an ISO of Chase Paymentech. YapStone offers multiple variations on its RentPayment processing platform, including VacationRentPayment, HolidayRentPayment, StorageRentPayment, InnPayment, DuesPayment, and ParishPay.
Yapstone Location and Ownership
Yapstone is located at 2121 N. California Boulevard, Suite 400, Walnut Creek, California, and is a registered ISO/MSP of Wells Fargo Bank NA in Walnut Creek, California. Tom Villante is the chairman and CEO of YapStone.
Yapstone Review Table of Contents
- Costs & Contract: YapStone appears to offer variable contract terms and pricing with strict cash reserve and chargeback policies.
- Complaints & Service: YapStone has received more than 50 public complaints.
- BBB Rating: YapStone has an “A+” rating with the Better Business Bureau and has received 0 complaints and 1 review in the past 3 years.
- Sales & Marketing: YapStone does not appear to hire independent sales representatives and has not received any complaints about its sales practices.
- Rates & Fees: How Merchants Got The Best Rates With YapStone
Highest Rated Competitors
Our unbiased reviews are supported, in part, by helping you find highly rated merchant accounts. You can learn more here.
Lowest Complaint Merchant Accounts
Our Opinion of YapStone
Major Customer Service Issues
YapStone rates as a worse-than-average merchant services provider according to our system. We do not currently have a great deal of specific information about the company’s contract terms, but YapStone and its RentPayment platform are receiving a growing number of public complaints online. Many of these complaints have been filed by merchants rather than renters, although both groups are well-represented. Merchants are advised to carefully examine all contract terms presented to them and to compare Yapstone’s pricing to the cheapest merchant accounts.
We rely on your feedback about YapStone 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!Top Rated Merchant Accounts of 2020
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 and Merchant Account Services
I'm a former credit card processing sales director who left the industry because I didn't like how it takes advantage of small business owners. It feeds like a leech on businesses and thrives by imposing fees that are nearly impossible to comprehend. Seeing a need for change, I left and built this website help business owners better understand the industry, research merchant services providers, and get refunds of excessive merchant account fees. My experience of working "behind the curtain" in the industry, and using that knowledge for good, has resulted in millions of dollars returned to hard-working small business owners as well as enterprise-level companies.
From the time that I starting working in the merchant services industry to when I left to create this website, I've been on the pulse of payments for nearly 15 years. It didn't seem fair to keep this "insider" knowledge to myself. To lift the fog, 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 on this website.
Phillip Parker
Being over charged for paying my rent with a credit card during these hard times. $20 Fee on top of it all is a rip off. There should be laws to protect us from this kind of Scam
Mashell,
This article may give you some insight: Yapstone’s Unpopular New Policy.
-Phillip
Yapstone is the most unscrupulous company I have worked with. It’s seems to be run by both incompetent and unethical types. I’m a homeowner on Homeaway.com (Homeaway terminated Yapstone in 2019) and I received a large booking just before Yapstone was terminated. That was 2019 (third quarter) and I have yet to receive the initial payment of approx $10k made by my guest. Yapstone apparently had sent an email to me indicating it would now be holding onto my funds until check-in (1 yr later) but if I wanted the funds earlier, I would have to pay another 3 percent (they already were getting 3 percent so this raised it to 6 percent). But I never received that email with a link to opt in to “advance payments”. Over the next 5 months I repeatedly called requesting the email be sent. It never was. They used the “only our marketing department can send the email” which sounded completely ludicrous to me. In what company does only the “marketing dept” have authority to send emails that are customer service oriented? Sounds like a ploy that enables Yapstone to hold onto someone else’s funds longer. In any event, still not resolved as of mid February 2020. Seems like a breach of fiduciary duty to me. They seem not to know that the funds they process don’t belong to Yapstone.
Lois,
There are several reasons Yapstone and other payment processors hold funds. This article may help you: How to Make a Payment Processor Release Your Funds.
-Phillip
Yapstone is the most unscrupulous company I have worked with. It’s seems to be run by incompetent gangsters. I’m a homeowner on Homeaway.com (Homeaway terminated Yapstone in 2019) and received a large booking just before Yapstone was terminated. That was 2019 (third quarter) and I have yet to receive the initial payment of approx $10k made by my guest. Yapstone apparently had send an email to me indicating it would now be holding onto my funds until checkin (1 yr later) but if I wanted the funds earlier, I would have to pay another 3 percent (they already were getting 3 percent so this raised it to 6 percent). But I never received that email with a link to opt in to “advance payments”. Over the next 5 months I repeatedly called requesting the email be sent. It never was. They used the “only our marketing department can send the email” which sounded completely bullcrap to me. In what company does only the “marketing dept” have authority to send emails that are customer service oriented? Sounds like a ploy that enables Yapstone to hold onto someone else’s funds longer. In any event, still not resolved as of mid February 2020. Seems like a breach of fiduciary duty to me. They seem not to know that the funds they process don’t belong to Yapstone.
Yapstone inexplicably deactivated my Homeaway account so my guests are unable to make final payment. They are holding over $3,000 of multiple guest funds (deposits, Florida sales taxes, Pinellas County taxes and Homeaway service fees) and will not allow me to “cancel” reservation and return funds. Homeaway says they are separate pmt provider and will not help. Reps don’t know English and don’t help. Over 35 emails and as many phone calls with no solution.
Joan,
There are several reasons Yapstone and other payment processors hold funds. This article may help you: How to Make a Payment Processor Release Your Funds.
-Phillip
Scam. They don’t process payments they have received and sit on it FOREVER. Furthermore, their state a time when funds were disbursed – only to find out they were never disbursed by THEM. SCAM ALERT! Homeaway Client with multi account for 15+ years. They lost me over this additional scam practice. DO NOT WORK WITH THEM!
0 Stars: Grade F-
Yapstone evidently has decided that they can hold my money hostage through VBRO guests, charging me a total of 6% on over 15,000 dollars over a 6 month period. These people should be sued! DO not do business with them.
I purchased a property going on 2 years ago and am still having nothing but issues with Yapstone. After multiple calls to Yapstone (to the point the supervisor knows my name), they tell me my VRBO account payment information can’t be changed from the previous owner to myself. They then hid my VRBO account with my knowledge, costing us thousands of dollars in revenue for the first year.
After following all of their various instructions, which changed with each call. I was forced to use a different email address and open a new account.
I was told my reviews could not be transferred, come to find out, all of my reviews were able to be transferred, even reviews received while I owned to property, but still with the unnecessary disclaimer that these reviews were given under previous ownership, which is not true!
Now, I have been on hold with Yapstone for going on 25 minutes to talk to someone about $1,236 that a customer booked on the old account a year ago as to have overlapping dates with another guest staying on our property (the customer booked on the account Yapstone forced me to close, prior to closing the account), but I have not received the money!
Yapstone is a dishonest company that does not care about their customer service and that’s on a good day for them!
Yapstone wants to take $762 from my acocunt, despite placing two tenants in my property and not paying me.
They have also refuse request for a full transaction over the last few months.
How can a company like this exist?
Yapstone and Vrbo are trying very hard to steal my $900. for a cancelled condo who misrepresented the space it had. I cancelled 4 months in advance, the contract said 90 days prior to arrival. They already booked the days I would have stayed, if they actually accommodated 4 guest. So they get the rental fee for that week and my $900.00 as well. Snakes and thieves these people are. They need to be incarcerated for their conduct for out right thieving peoples hard earned cash.
I am a small business owner with 4-5 villa rentals. We have been a premier partner with vrbo for over 10 years. We were with Yapstone Payment Processor since 2014 and were very happy until Sept 2019 when they notified us that if we wanted to continue advanced payments they were now charging 6% instead of the previous 3%. As we need Cash Flow to operate our business I opted in. Then to make matters worse, I was on the phone with vrbo customer service and the lady said I see you are with Yapstone. You should switch to HomeAway Payments. I said what do you mean? She said we are asking everyone to join. I said what is the cc fee, she said 3%. I said is there any advance fee or delay? She said no, just the initial 5 -7 business days to verify your bank account. She said because you have been with Yapstone and a long time customer in good standing there will be no issues with getting your funds within 5-7 business days of each reservation. So I had a few instant bookings come in over the weekend and I looked up to see when the funds would be in my account. It showed after the guests arrived. So I called to find out if there was some error and was informed that the lady should of told me 90 days to be approved for advanced payments. So 90 days with no cash flow to operate 4 villa’s that have mortgages and monthly bills like staff, utilities, alarm companies, cable/internet and so much more. This is the time of year we do renovations and now I am stuck not being able to pay the mortgage for 3 months. Then I asked to speak to a supervisor and started a complaint process and was advised there was nothing that could be done even if the girl gave me the wrong info as I said, everything is recorded listen to the recording. Still not possible to switch me back to yapstone or payout the funds that they have for my business to operate.
Incredibly horrible experience with this company. They provide absolutely horrendous customer support asking for information that I being the HomeAway property owner cannot supply/have no idea how to provide. When asked how to supply the information the service rep never responded. They clearly represent the renter in this particular case & not the property owner as advertised. I have reported this company to the better business bureau while also filing a complaint in my state of Massachusetts with the Attorney General.
All my properties ended up on one 1099.
Yapstone is horribly unorganized. I needed information on my 1099. It took 6 different numbers to call before we got to right person. we had to explain our problem over and over. I ask for american. There were none. After over a half hour on the phone we got some them to understand. They had no copy of the 1099. We scan emailed it while on phone. Then realizing they put all our properties on one 1099.
Nightmare. I am disappointed in VRBO HA & yapstone which is a joke. The level of vrbo should have a Competant from top to bottom. When you mess with my money, this is more than frustrating.
The whole process is ridiculously incompetent.
YapStone is a terrible company. It has terrible customer support and it does not release funds it holds that belong to property owners. Yapstone is also referred to as Vacationrentpayments and this is the “company” that VRBO – homeaway u”uses” for processing all property owner funds. VRBO acts like this is a separate company – however – VRBO is the ONLY company that Yapstone processes payments for. Thus VRBO owns Yapstone and probably has this shell company to protect assets and screw over its customers.
This post will help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
-Phillip
We used VRBO to rent our property for 12 years but no long rent because of all the shady things happening included holding “our” money until client arrives. We used to get full payment 45 days prior after a deposit of first nights rent. WE also gave refunds for some cancellations and delt with clients directly… we talked directly on the phone and also checked references. No More!
VRBO contracted with Yapstone to process owners payments received from renters, a task I was happily and successfully managing for over 10 years. Now I was not given the option. They contracted with Yapstone to process the payments and I am subsequently charged a processing fee. They have now announced that unless I pay them an additional 3% they will hold payments received for lodging service until after the guest arrives which could be several months or even a year. No doubt they are putting the funds into an interest-bearing – account. I wrote them to inform them that I was not willing to opt in to the 3% program (on top of the processing fee) and that if they held my funds longer than 30 days, I would expect interest. I have not heard from anyone and I believe the practice to be illegal. This would be a federal issue. Thoughts?
In reply to Elizabeth Nelson: I have thought the same thing that it must be illegal for them to hold the owner’s money. It’s probably written into the fine print of the agreement, however. Still, I would love to see a class action lawsuit against this company.
I would love to see a class action lawsuit as well. Yapstone’s behavior approaches if not exceeds “gross negligence” – punitive and compensatory damages should be pursued and, while I’m not an expert on this, gross negligence that is so flagrant is considered fraudulent and thereby criminal charges could be brought. And by the way, Yapstone is not VRBO or Homeaway, it’s just a shoddy payments processor with investors, MasterCard being one of them. Check out Crunchbase.com for information on their CEO, other principals and all their investors. And check out their reviews by insiders and employees in Glassdoor.com. Seems to be a company getting what they deserve.
This article could be worth reviewing to understand ongoing issues with the company and measures being taken against them: Complaints Regarding Yapstone’s New Policy.
-Phillip
My experience with home away (yapstone) has been erroneous 3% foreign transaction fee charges for a USA rental with a USA credit card in US dollars. several attempts to have home away rectify end up with home away disconnecting the call.
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Vacation Rental
-Phillip
Yapstone just decided to hold all of our vacation rental payments until after our renters check in or pay an extra 3% fee to get our own money right away. They make it sound like they are loaning us the money, they are not, it is already paid to them and it belongs to us. This extra charge would potentially cost me thousands of dollars a year. We used to get our money a week after it was collected. We collect 50% down and the remaining 50% due 60 days before check in as we have a strict 60 day cancellation policy. Most of our customers book several months to a year in advance. This seems unethical and illegal to me. How can they hold our money for up to a year? Secondly, if my cancellation policy is sixty days then those rent payments are legally mine 60 days before check in so how can they legally hold those funds for an extra 60-70 days? I think we should start a class action lawsuit. We should begin by gathering a list of everyone on here that is affected by this new policy.
I intend to call our state attorney general tomorrow as well as the federal trade commission, the Internet crime complaint center, and their acquiring bank. I recommend that each of you do the same thing,
Yapstone finds every method available to steal your money legally. Through Homeaway, they charge a processing fee for credit card charges, ok fine, but then after the customer pays you, Yapstone holds your money until your rental customer actually checks into the property while collecting interest on your money. If you want your sale money right away, they charge you another three percent to get it. Yapstone needs to die a painful death. They’re greed will be their downfall.
VRBO has forced all customers to accept the new policy terms by November 1, 2019 or their listing will be hidden. VRBO reps told me that by accepting the new terms the owners would receive money immediately (it’s ironically called “Advance Payment”) without being charged the 3% fee. But after accepting the terms, they now tell us that we have to “invited” to be “eligible” to receive the advance payment. It’s time to take these people to court.
What Yapstone together with homeaway is doing is absolutely fraudulent!!!!
Yes they give you the option to select Advance payment for a another fee of 3%. Ridiculous, because the money belongs to the property owner and not YAPSTONE nor does it belong to Homeaway!! But for arguments sake let’s say you agree like I did.
So on 8/23/2019 I opted in. and here comes the fraud…. I receive a booking paid on 8/30/2019 for a guest checking in on 9/1/2019 and departing 9/4/2019. As per their bullshit rules… I am now in the Advance Payment option… which means I get the money 3-7 business days after payment and I am charged the extra 3% for this wonderful option. I received that payment today on 9/10/2019 (The guest is already check out and back home by now).
For this short notice booking if I had not had the Advance Payment option then I would receive the payment 24 hours after check-in and do not pay the extra 3% thus I would have received it on 9/2/2019.
Another issue are chrargeback issues. I have had a client book and cancel 2 days later with me agreeing to a full refund. 7 days later the client still does not have their money back since Yaptsone holds it and holds it. In the meantime the client has called their CC company for chargeback and I have to deal with email correspondence, provide proof that we refunded, etc. etc. and weeks later it is clarified because yapstone had finally refunded it about 14 days later.
If anyone can recomend a better software tool to get rental listings on other sites, please let me know. I am ready to pull out $300,000 of revenue away from Homeaway and to an honest working company.
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Vacation Rentals
-Phillip
The worst company I have ever dealth with.
The did a charge back without check to see if I had refunded the Guest, which I had done. The Guest and I have spent hours on the phone. Aug 20, they agreed t stop the transaction. I have been told for days, my money and the 14 $35 dollars would be returned. It is now 9/11. Nothing but a bunch of BOZOS, telling you what you want to hear.
This post will help: Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Funds
-Phillip
We have been dealing with Yspstone thru VRBO. They were taking payments for our vacation rental. In midstream they changed their policies and now keep the money that is owed to us when guest book and will not pay us till after the guests visits. They are using our money to earn interest and causing us, as a small business owner to be in a financial bind! Our cash flow has now become nonexistent !!!! This is a bad business practice! We have expenses such as mortgage payments and with their new practice of keeping our money until after guest check in which is up to a year away cause us a terrible cash flow bind. Something needs to be done about this!!!!!
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Vacation Rentals
-Phillip
Do not do businesses with this company!!!
Through VRBO/HOMEAWAY, not only did they let my data get stolen, now they doubled my fees with no warning.
Pick any other company than this one!!!!
Yapstone and their partner in crime HomeAway are little more than thieving crooks. For every 1,000.00 € they already skim close to 150.00 € in fees, massively profiting from both our customers and us the homeowners by jacking up people’s holiday costs and taking advantage of customers who are often not aware of just how high these service fees are. Every party involved, renter and homeowner is gouged.
And now to top it off, Yapstone have advised us that they will stop their ‘advance payment’ service. WTF? Advance payment service – what utter twaddle. These thieves are paid by our customers to rent our properties. Some customers book their holidays a year in advance and often many months ahead of the holiday season. And in order for us the homeowners to receive the money Yapstone have been paid, they are now demanding yet another eye popping fee – 3% to pay us the money they owe us?
How is this even legal? Try to speak to anyone on the phone to find out how they justify their thievery and you get sent round and round in circles and your comments ‘will be noted.’ My arse – they don’t give a shit. Yet another corporate thief just doing what it does to pad its bottom line at the expense of those it fleeces on a daily basis, withholding funds for months, investing in the market and paying out money it owes to clients many months later. Their obvious disdain for the customer is clear for all to see in the letter they sent us advising of their new ‘policy’ change.
They even have the nerve to write ‘We sincerely apologize for this short notice and appreciate the impact on your cashflow.’………
Like hell they do. On one hand Yapstone acknowledges how cash flow is so vital to our relatively small business, and then on the other hand they screw us anyway. And short notice would be an understatement. There was no notice. This is arbitrary. We have been told. Nothing can be done about it.
Yapstone and their partners in crime HomeAway clearly have forgotten where their income comes from and they obviously don’t give a shit. These corporations are a disgrace. No morality, no empathy, no loyalty just greed, greed and more despicable greed.
Here below is the letter they sent us…………
“We are writing to advise you of a change to your Yapstone Advanced Payments feature. After careful review of competitive payment offerings, we have discontinued Advanced Payments as a free service. Effective today, your payment account is being converted from Advanced Payments service to Check-In service (See, Yapstone Check-In Payments Terms). We sincerely apologize for this short notice and appreciate the impact on your cashflow. We know that this is a valued feature of Yapstone and that it distinguishes us from competitors. So, we have created a quick way for you to resume the Advanced Payments feature.
HomeAway customers who want to resume getting the benefits of advanced payments can do so at a cost of 3% per transaction (in addition to the standard processing fee) for the new service. By opting into the fee-based service below, you agree to the fees and terms. To opt-in, click the button below.”
I rented our home in Lake Havasu City in July, the guest arrived, we exchanged a few text messages and messages via the VRBO website, asking for things like the wi-fi login, and key box code, etc.
all went well, but about a week after the guest had left, there was a chargeback in “pending status” for $870 in my checking account, I immediately called the bank, and had all transactions with VRBO suspended, until I could get to the bottom of this.
As it turned out, the guest, a young man from California named Thomas Gomez (be aware of renting to him) disputed the charge on him American Express, stating that he did not recognize the charge.
I contacted VRBO, and they assisted me on getting all the documentation together for Yapstone to dispute the chargeback (the aforementioned text messages, as well as messages via the website)
Long story short, Yapstone is not happy that they got stuck holding the bag, and have attempted to debit my account a total of 5 more times, even going as far as threatening me with legal action, I of course suggested that they focus these efforts on the person that actually intentionally committed this fraud (Thomas Gomez was his name) and they would have their money back soon enough.
In the meantime, my listing was suspended, at the height of the season, I guess as punishment for being a victim of fraud.
VRBO representatives seem to be at the mercy of the Yapstone, their 3rd party provider, and basically is telling me there is nothing that can be done…
VRBO is supposed to be an advocate of their client, but this experience has me looking for another website to use, I never expected to be penalized for being a victim of fraud, because it’s easier than going after the actual guilty party.
currently seeking legal advice…
This post will help: How to Fight Chargebacks and Win
-Phillip
Another money grab related to Homeaway and the greedy bastards of crapstone,or vacationrentpayments.com . The worst service any company can have with exorbitant fees and just plain bad practices make this the STAY AWAY FROM company of the year. 6% to process a payment is like dealing with the MOB of vacation rentals. It is no surprise they are related to Homeaway that also has taken hidden fees to a new level.
This post will help: Eliminate Hidden Fees From Your Monthly Bill
-Phillip
As a investment property owner on HomeAway/VRBO I knew i was going to be charged a 3% processing fee on payments (thats before they just abruptly doubled that to 6% last week, which is a whole nother issue), they also charge 3% on processing fee on the the COMBINED tax obligation thats remitted directly to the state. I say combined because I have my rental income (and cleaning fee) thats my obligation, but they (HomeAway/VRBO) also have their service fee income which is their obligation, and they charge me 3% on both!! How come I have to pay the processing fee on THEIR tax obligation portion???? this has got to be illegal
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Vacation Rentals
-Phillip
We are now being forced as property owners to either pay Yapstone an additional 3% or they are going to relegate us to the check in payment method. Prior to this we were receiving our money 5-7 days “after” the customer paid it, and now it will not be deposited into our bank account until 30 days “after” the renter checks out!! In some cases Yapstone or HomeAway will be keeping our money for over 60 days before paying it to us. I think this is completely wrong and unacceptable!!
I think a class action lawsuit is justified. VRBO and Yapstone is jamibing this down our throats. They could just as easily allow us to use Paypal or accept checks, but they also charge 3% for ACH or echecks. It is bad enough that VRBO fees are gouging both the owner and renter.
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Vacation Rentals
-Phillip
Disgrace of a company, homeaway payments provider, fees started at 1.4% to 2% then increased to 3% a couple of years ago , now they want an extra 3% to release the money to you before the guests check in, no right to withold funds. Couple of years ago we found them withholding £20k of funds because they did have a DD set up to recover a couple of refunds. Putting unnecessary pressure on small businesses and individuals, disgraceful
This post will help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Funds
-Phillip
Yapstone sent out an “effective immediately” notice raising fees 3 percent to thousands of VRBO owners. There is a class action suite underway. Big fat F to Yapstone leadership!
This post will help: Find and Eliminate Hidden Fees From Your Monthly Bill
-Phillip
I will be happy to become part of this class action suit against YapStone. Please provide information as to how we can help.
Expedia has integrated its payment processing & fraud platform into VRBO. you should email your VRBO rep and move off Yapstone VRP
Without any notice, Yapstone abandons VRBO/Homeaway/Expedia with significant changes and disastrous accounting nightmares to follow. I’ve been with VRBO for over 10 years and have seen the changes and it’s NOT getting better. Under Yapstone’s “new” system of charging 6% total for advance payment, I received funds on 08/30 when a traveler paid me 08/28 at 3% (morons) yet all other payments paid 08/23/2019 took a minimum of 5 days at between 3% and 6% charges. Yapstone hasn’t posted 1 payment from 8/22 nor have I received the Direct Deposit Details even on the payment. This is my 2nd time calling inquiring about its status. It’s STILL pending. Why? Because I opted in and confirmed 08/22/2019 @ 1:44 pm. Guest paid 08/22/2019 @ 3:27 pm. Yapstone NOW saying it took 24 hours to upload my opt-in status so I won’t get paid until check in PLUS 1 day. ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? I CAN’T GET AWAY FROM THIS MESS FAST ENOUGH!!!!! NOW, when I call I get a company named Rent Payment and no longer Yapstone. SMH!!!!!
I too am not happy in the recent changes to VRBO/HomeAway payment system. It seems a Win-Win for them either way! 3% if I want my funds in a timely manner (as before) or any interest gained in “holding” said monies until guest arrives. In reading a couple articles, my guess is funding lawsuit payouts and/or improving company moral with raises or the like. Not that employees don’t deserve it!
This post will help: Why Credit Card Processors Hold Funds
-Phillip
As most of us are now aware, YapStone has changed their Advance Payments policy to withhold payments made by guests to the homeowner or Property manager until after a guest checks in unless they want to pay an additional 3% fee to Yapstone. This seems completely ILLEGAL to me as they are simply a 3rd party payment processor as their agreement even states. They are NOT a party to our business whatsoever. Except that now they are trying to make theirselves a party to our business by telling us they will withhold payments to us until the check-in date of the guests. What other 3rd party payment processor is allowed to retain payments to a client for days, weeks, even months before releasing payments to them. No matter what they tell you this is ILLEGAL for them to do as a 3rd party payment processor. Someone needs to start a class action lawsuit against them. They are acting illegally and they are discrimating against a particular class of customers (vacation rental home owners and managers). We are the owners of our vacation rental businesses and we should not be dictated to on when our rental payments will be paid over to us. State licensed property managers are required to have an escrow account and any rental payments are required by law to be deposited to that escrow account within 3 business days of being paid. This new policy by Yapstone is making Property managers become illegal through no fault of their own. Many state require that sales tax is paid when any payments are made on a rental. If the homeowner is not collecting the payment until after the guests checks in, then where is the money for them to pay the sales tax due on the initial down payment? All I can say is ILLEGAL, ILLEGAL, and ILLEGAL. I’m searching for a different credit card processor right away. Any recommendations from anyone out there?
This post will help: Why Credit Card Processors Hold Funds
-Phillip
I have been an owner listing with VRBO for years. Last year YapStone took over the payment receipt and disbursment from PayPal and raised the processing from 2.5% to 3%. I accepted it. This month, without any advanced notice, they are requiring another 3% (total 6%) to “advance” the funds to them for MY property….or they will “keep” them until my guest checks in! This is totally unacceptable and fraudulent on their part. I am discussing with VRBO what my options are – this feels like theft from a company that has a monopoly on the current functioning system. I will not accept this and am writing to my congressman immediately to check on the lawful credibility of this company.
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Vacation Rentals
-Phillip
YapStone is now withholding Renter’s funds from the VRBO website for an 30 day period until after renter’s arrival. To receive your funds as before they are charging an additional 3% of the transaction fee. The greed of Yapstone and their partner affiliate VRBO is never ending. This needs to end!
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Vacation Rentals
-Phillip
I am disgusted to hear about this companies recent changes as they relate to their partnership with VRBO/ Homeaway. They have immediately stopped instant payments to homeowners when someone rents are house. So they charge me a fee for the transaction (about 12%) then they want to hold onto the money till one day after the guest checks in. I could essentially have thousands of dollars tied up by them for months with no guarantee that I will actually get paid. This is my house not yours, I am so sick of this strong armed treatment.
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Vacation Rentals
-Phillip
If you want to effect real change, tell every company, non profit, etc. you work with/ pay money to, that you will no longer work with them until they are no longer using Yapstone. There are well over 1 million people from VRBO/Homeaway that just had their business put in jeopardy. I am pretty sure that kind of influence on these companies will get them to find another solution and drop Yapstone. If we all do this, Yapstone will try to save their business by offering to compensate all of us. I have already started this with the non profits I donate to, and am now checking with the vendors I use. I hope you all will do this also
This post will help: How to Report Bad Credit Card Processors
-Phillip
Yapstone changed the terms of our agreement without advanced notice, and apologized if it impacted our cash flow. That is the best it can do, so I suspect that is just the tip of the iceberg when doing business with Yapstone and affiliates. Be forwarned!
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Vacation Rentals
-Phillip
We have the same issue and I’m researching what could be done about it. Obviously they don’t give a damn about their customers. looking for a way to make them care.
I found not agree more with you Michael Brown. I contacted Yapstone. They cannot explain themselves. This is not about the customer this is purely about their bottom line. We are now accountable to pay them release funding that belongs to us. How is this even legal?
This company is the most unethical company that I have ever dealt with . They keep stocking on fees that are completely unjustified. run the other way if you can and do not sign any contract with them. You will be sorry on many levels
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Vacation Rentals
-Phillip
I can not believe no one has started a law suit against these people. I told them yesterday that they were breaking the law and they need to rethink what they are doing.
This post will help: How to Report Bad Credit Card Processors
-Phillip
An appalling company. Literally not one day’s notice to customers that they would not be paying them their money for upto a year. No interest on funds and no respect for their customers whose living they are holding for ransom. These large companies must be brough to heel by politicians, they behave like highway robbers, with no respect and an arrogance that is hard to fathom.
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Vacation Rentals
-Phillip
So my question is this=how do you go about ridding yourself of Yapstone and request another card processor be placed for your account? And what about the fees that VRBO ar adding onto what they say is now South Carolina mandated collection of lodging taxed. W, e have always collected and processed these taxed previously.
Yapstone w/o notice (effective immediately) has changed its policy to immediately transfer the first part of monies received on confirmed reservations to property owners using VRBO in favor of making this payment at guest check-in. This first payment now can be received immediately with a 3% fee or Yapstone has generously and unilaterally (though possibly VRBO-Expedia have agreed and benefit) decided to keep these reservation monies up until the actual stay as what is essentially an interest free loan.
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Vacation Rentals
-Phillip
They just changed their payment policy without any notice. They just announced they will payments until check-in instead of paying the host when the guests pay.
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Vacation Rentals
-Phillip
This company is extremely unethical. Complete scam! There was not an easily identifiable option for paying rent through a check. Once I paid with a credit card, I called the company seconds later because i noticed a $85 fee to pay one month’s rent. Extremely unreasonable. The company would not void/cancel the payment or assist in any way. They are a scam.
They are the worst.
After I have investigate the issues they did not wanted to explain me pre arbitration case , after I have won first instance , they just close the case in 9 days even VISA gives to me 30 days time and my money has gone to the bank of the client who did not come on vacation and cancel vacation by themselves.
Worst of all , people are in support have no clue , they are from Philippines and is not possible to get them chargeback team by the phone and try to be explain what and where I am . To give suggestion and to act for me and not for the fraud client.
This post will help: How to Fight Chargebacks and Win
-Phillip
I have a listing on vacation common rental website. I had a renter who wanted several reservations (actually all summer) but they had to book around some other existing reservations. The payment processing goes through Yapstone.They booked appropriately on the vacation website with 4-5 stays. The renter put it on her mother in law’s credit card which was normal for her. The mother in law had some dementia so didn’t recognize the charges. She disputed all charges with the company. After that all fees were reversed back to her card and all the payments were taken out of my account with little notice. So then I have a guest with no fees on hold during a stay! VRBO told me to have the renter put it on a different card (because of the mother’s rejection of that card charges.) The renter had to cancel every booking with my help and rebook all. This second card was also rejected after we were told to do this by the rental company and followed their instructions but it did not work. These renters were seen as “fraudulent” or high risk we were told even after we explained the mistake. We were told by Yapsone they would never charge anything for this renter or her mother in law, ever after numerous confusing phone calls. I was forced to book them outside of the vacation rental web site and had to do all the contracts and payments by hand. Then after 40 days Yapstone reversed all the charges from the mother’s card back into my account paying me after the stays were done and took out significant booking fees with no service provided by them! They did not receive a booking through the vacation website. They did it through me as an owner only. I am trying to get their fees back but have had no success yet and have to figure out how to get what they deposited back to me (much later) without further confusion. I understand that the vacation rental website is going to change to another billing company now which is a great idea. The Yapstone people are also very hard to talk to because they are in another county and they don’t understand complex problems like this. I did not want these people to be charged after the fact (40 or so days later) and that is what Yapstone did. They should have told us to tell the renter they didn’t want their card charged at a later time as a clear plan and they paid in a different way (just in case) but they never explained that to us! I found out after more phone calls I can’t reverse these credits after the fact fees back to the renters card so have to do it a different way. (My bank said that doesn’t work)
Hoping for resolution and service fees back to renter! Phone call totals – about 10 hours or more.
Hoping for resolution! Linda
This post will help: How to Fight Chargebacks and Win
-Phillip
Summary:
On June 1st and June 2nd of 2019 I was unable to make a payment my current apartment’s rental property, El Serrano Apartments (Pomona CA, 91776) due to a technical issue with the website https://www.rentpayment.com/.
(Yapstone Inc, at 2121 N California Blvd #400, Walnut Creek, CA 94596)
(Rentpayment.com is the 3rd party transaction company that is used by the property, El Serrano Apartments, to conduct online transactions)
When I went to make the payment the option to continue was grayed out and could not be clicked on. I was unable to proceed, or pay my rent.
On Monday, June 3rd 2019 I called 866 289 5977, pressed option 2, and spoke with a customer service rep (George, to the best of my recollection). I was told there was indeed a technical error where the continue button on the website was grayed out and I could not submit a payment and that many customers were experiencing this.
However, I was also told there was a work around, and that to fix the issue I simply had to add a 2nd payment account to my account. I at first said I had no other bank accounts and was uncomfortable being forced to start a new one simply to fix the companies error.
The customer service rep insisted this was the only way I would be able to pay my rent. As I was nervous and scared about being late to pay, I agreed add an older savings account that does not have any balance so I could fix the problem. The rep walked me through the entire process of adding the account step by step.
Once added I was able to successfully make the payment with my normal checking account that has been on https://www.rentpayment.com/ since I fist begun renting with El Serano Apts (March of 2018)
I asked the representative, specifically, and numerous times, throughout the phone call, that this new savings account I was adding would never be charged, and would never be made the default account whenever I was processing payments. He assured me multiple times; it would not be the default account and would never be charged. At the end of the call, I reiterated again this account would never be charged, he agreed.
The length of this phone call was 42 minutes
However, when I went to make the payment on July 1st, the rentpayment.com attempted to charge the incorrect savings account that rentpayment.com assured me would not be charged.
This resulted in the following financial losses to me:
$35 (Bank of America Insufficient fund fee)
$35 (El Serrano Apartments, returned transaction fee)
$75 (El Serrano Apartments, late rent fee)
On July 3rd I again called rentpayment.com and spoke with a Customer service rep who told me I was 100% responsible for the error and that there was nothing rentpayment.com was going to do about it. I asked to speak with a supervisor (Name of Brian, I believe.) who told me the same thing and spent over 30 minutes repeating himself that they were not going to help me and that there was no other supervisor. After having to repeatedly yell at him for another supervisor, he hung up on me.
Length of phone call: 1hr.
I called again on July 3rd and asked to speak with the escalations dept, which I was eventually transferred to another manager who said the escalations dept would need to call me back.
Length of phone call: 25 minutes.
Additionally, because of the returned transaction, El Serrano Apartments will now no longer accept online payments from me for the next 3 months, meaning I have to pay 15$ each month to get a cashiers check, totaling an additional $45
This brings the total financial loss of: $185
Additional factors:
I am disabled, I suffered a broken neck and severe nerve damage last year. I am unable to drive, turn my head, or lift my right arm. I am on numerous pain medications.
The pain and suffering inflicted on me by rentpayment.com has been tremendous. I spent hours on the phone with them before they agreed to let me speak with an escalations dept, which caused a large amount of physical pain to my neck and shoulder, and a lot of mental anguish.
Being unable to drive, I had to ask someone for a ride to the bank simply to pay my rent, which also aggravated my injury further.
I also received several phone calls from the property manager themselves stating my rent was late and I had 3 days to pay it before I was evicted, this was both embarrassing and frightening, as I have nowhere else to live.
Additionally, I am being told because of rentpayment.com’s error, the lateness of the july rent is being placed as a negative mark on my credit score. So this error will be following me for several years now.
This was a technical error caused by Rentpayment.com, which they fully admitted (Several times) to having over the phone with me, and via email. Which I still have a transcript of. I was also told by the escalations dept that adding my 2nd account was NOT to proper work around, and that they “Don’t know why an agent would do that.”
I am on a fixed income as a disabled person. I cannot afford even one dollar extra on my budget and was forced to take out a personal loan to cover the cost of their mistake.
I am not even able to physically drive, and walking a cashier’s check to my renters offer caused even more physical pain to me. I will have to do it 2 more times.
They have now offered me half of what was owed because they still feel I am somehow responsible for their technical error.
This has been an awful, painful, debilitating experience that I should not have had suffered through and that rentpayment.com is refusing to make right.
I feel I have been more than fair in asking for the 185$ in fees be restored to me as recompense for their error, despite being put through hours of mental anguish and physical pain as a direct result of their error thus far, but given their refusal I now what to seek further damages in regards to this issue.
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Great Customer Service
-Phillip
We have a customer who never received back his 300€ caution for a holiday rent. Customer service is very bad, it uses many times standard answers without reading the case or replies. After 1 month a payment reference number (arn) was given that had no meaning for mastercard for tracing. We reopened the case recently. Mastercard and the merchant bank provided written proof that the money was never transfered back.
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Vacation Rentals
-Phillip
I have had my b&b’s listed with vrbo for 15 yrs. The payment department Yapstone they are using at this present time are basically a group that lie and cheat owner’s out of their booking monies. Recently i had 2 chargebacks for 2 bookings, there is a No Refund in place and both travelers agreed, I sent Yapstone pages and pages of emails from these travelers and followed up with Yapstone people that they in fact did receive all my correspondence from and to these travelers. Each time i spoke to someone at Yapstone, they told me a different story. I had reps from vrbo talking to them over 3 days and hours of conversation and emails showing all my documents. And Yapstone would NOT forward the documentation to the banks so that i could show these travelers were not entitled to a refund. Yapstone cost me a total of $ 2700. Fortunately i hear from vrbo they will no longer use Yapstone as their processes. They are theives and non speaking English person, and no one can win when dealing with Yapstone. I warn all…
This post will help: How to Fight Chargebacks and Win
-Phillip
DO NOT CONSIDER THIS COMPANY AS A THIRD PARTY SYSTEM. This company is the absolute worst! I had a chargeback on a VRBO home account with a fully stated cancelation policy that is posted and in black and white. Yapstone reached out to me while out of the country and because they did not hear back in sufficient time they refunded from my bank account $1169.58 to a person that not only canceled at the last minute but when I offered a secondary option he never even gave me the courtesy of a return call. Yapstone did not contact their partner VRBO & client to verify my cancelation policy which would have resolved this matter instantly. Unacceptable. Not to mention they are positioned in either India or the Philippines and not easy to understand and come with loads of attitude!
This post will help: How to Fight Chargebacks and Win
-Phillip
I asked a yapstone representative several times very specifically about the process for a refund and they gave me bad information which led to many hours and fees on my part. Yapstone will not own their mistake and stands by their written policy despite the mis-information
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Great Customer Service
-Phillip
Wow let me tell you YapStone is a criminal company with no ethics. The purpose of this company is to pay you as slowly as they can…in direct opposition to most gig economy jobs which pay lightning fast. In fact airbnb pays in full the day after the guest checks in, so often the host is paid while the guest is still in their space which is appropriate and perfect. VRBO holds your money with yapstones help and sees how long they can keep it from you. Its just a game and they are crooks and should be regulated out of business. The shisterness of Americans ripping each other off needs to stop. This is pure greed on the part of VRBO and I plan to use more and other sites and phase out my VRBO booking entirely they are just such corrupt greed jerks. This game gets tiring fast when you have to chase them down to get paid. And by the way if you complain to these butt hole surfers your payment comes quicker by days and that happens every time I complain…..so you know they are arbitrarily holding peoples funds. These people are awful and really do suck, even as they made fortunes off other peoples assets!
This post will help: Why Credit Card Processors Hold Funds
-Phillip
The worst worst worst company to deal with. VRBO is the 2nd worst for allowing them onboard!! Anytime you call you will reach a call center in India, lots of background noise, little resolution!!
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Great Customer Service
-Phillip
It is May,2019 and I am still waiting for a payment from Yapstone of about $1100.usd they collected from a guest in Sept 2018 and the guest stayed in November 2018. I guess I made too many complaints to Vrbo and Yapstone inquiring where my money is, and they de-listed my property in December. Yapstone is clearly a rip-off and will come up with every excuse and fee they can to avoid paying over the money they owe you. The last scam they pulled on me is that I needed to pay them $495usd for an annual fee, and then they would probably pay me. I did not fall for it. Do NOT use Yapstone, it is frustrating waste of time and you will not see your money based on how they treated me.
This post will help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
-Phillip
I’m hearing. Impaired on a fixed budget and now I have to deal with employees speaking broken English, who are very difficult to understand!!! Nothing but a headache fees are outrageous. I dont need to send another dime trying to pay the high rent. TOTALLY FRAUD AND SHOULD BE ILLEGAL!
This post will help: Best Merchant Account Providers for Great Customer Service
-Phillip
This company does not have the merchants interests at stake. They exist only to protect the interests of the travellers. I had a recent guest who I issued a refund to. I made a mistake in submitting the correct amount of the refund. When I realized that there was a mistake in the amount to be refunded and contacted them about how the problem could be corrected, I received no assistance from the merchant support staff, and also no assistance from the supervisor. I placed a hold on the amount of the debit that was being withdrawn from my account and was threatened by Yapstone, stating that they would remove my listing from the website, ceasing payment processing and taking action to collect the amount through alternative methods.
This company engages in fraudulent business practices and intimidation of its merchants. They do not engage in fair business practices in resolving issues in favor of their merchants.
Please be warned of this company and try to use another company to represent your merchant account if at all possible.
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Great Customer Service
-Phillip
I rent from Equity Apartments. They just changed to Yapstone as a 3rd party company to process their rent payments. They added $75 for a single time payment service fee, $4.95 for a recurring single rent payment (not always feasible if you live with a roommate), or $35 for a recurring rental payment that isn’t the total rent amount. This is absurdly close to extortion and I’ve already complained to my property manager.
for months we have been trying to secure payment of fees that are ours.. meaning people paid us and they are holding them.. 3 months.. 10K worth of fees. each time the discussion is different. they need different pieces of paper. not trustworthy. not transparency. No supervisors. No help. its our m oney and we have already provided services. never again
This post will help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
-Phillip
Absolute WOAT! Dealing with Yapstone is the worst thing you’ll encounter in the entire vacation rental industry… HORRIBLE. Find another solution!
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Vacation Rentals
-Phillip
Someone attempted to use my card info at 4:23am 4/1/19, in a location I’ve never heard of!!! I called my card and the rep told me it was this company that was trying to take $120 and change off my card!!! I was at work when this occurred!!!
This is the most unprofessional company. They do not do there job. I have been talking to them for over a month now. I had a guest stay at my home who left another VRBO hose due to the cleanliness. She contacted AMEX to let them know she had not stayed in this home and wanted to be refunded for that home. Yapstone has tried three times now to take it from my account and now are saying they will deactivate my account if I don’t give them the 1200 they want. The renter left a glowing review and has called them about a dozen times now to tell them they are wrong as well as Amex. I don’t have the money to return since the money was received 60 days ago. Not to mention it’s not there money. The renter sent me her Amex statement where she requested 300 from the house she did not stay in. So why is yapstone trying to take 1200 from me. I have sent them a email from the renter I have sent tons of supporting documentation that this chargeback was not filed. This is a crooked company that does not care about the customers Home Away has. I am now having to hire an attorney. Worst company ever very unprofessional .
This post will help: How to Fight Chargebacks And Win
-Phillip
Terrible. Communications need to be better established with the companies you are providing the service for.
They have yet to release funds for bookings/guests that have paid come and gone; pending paperwork.
This is ridiculous I have been doing this for over 5 years and paperwork is stopping payments!!???? People need to be paid!! Terrible experience over and over with you guys.
This post will help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
-Phillip
Yapstone has refused to release funds owed to us from rentals. My husband had the account in his name and after he died they have refused to release the funds that were paid to them by renters. Legal documents were presented and they have still not released them. I think this company is the worst company and we will not be using Homeaway because of our experience with Yapstone.
This post will help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
-Phillip
Yapstone is absolutely the worst payment system I have had to deal with. There are no words to describe how unethical, inconsiderate and dysfunctional their service is, but there is a number to quantify the value for service (0/10).
VRBO uses this service in Canada for vacation rental payments. First, they attempted to contact me while I was away on vacation and immediately decided to process refunds to all my guests without my permission. The agent told me it was my fault for not responding even when I had provided proof that I was on vacation. She then proceeded to deactivate my account and put holds on all payments that were due to me for stays that I had earned (hosted and received payments – STEALING FROM ME).
I will be pursuing legal action with this company for funds withheld and opportunities lost as they are absolutely mistaking if they believe that they can get away with stealing from their clients.
-Abe
This post will help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
– Phillip
Yapstone is witholding $13,000 from me even though my guests have already stayed in my VRBO. They have requested every bit of information from me, including my social security number that I had to send digitally. My guest had NO problems whatsoever, but they still haven’t “approved” my application. I have had guests stay in the past and had zero problems. I honestly don’t even know what to do. My guests payed in April 2018 and I have still not received a penny. It’s not February 2019. It is highly illegal what they’re doing. Beware and DO NOT ever use this service. Use AirBNB instead. I have had no problems with them.
This post will help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
– Phillip
This is the worst, most unprofessional pay company I have ever worked with. They still owe me money from a December rental. I have been given the run around still for almost 3 months. I am still chasing the money as it is over 1000 usd.
This post will help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
– Phillip
I have been scammed by Yapstone. They will not release money for Homeaway rental. One lie after another. Do not use.
This post will help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
– Phillip
Outrageous !! If you want to trash your client base sign up with Yapstone…they are unresponsive and recklessly pretend to provide services by withholding client funds.
It is truly conversion in every illegal sense of the word.
This post will help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
– Phillip
RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!!! They are a criminal entity. We had a guest that signed an agreement with a no cancellation clause clearly stated and 2 days before their check-in decided to cancel due to bad weather predictions. The rental agreement also clearly advised the guest to purchase travel insurance which they did not do. We vigorously disputed the claim and this company went into our bank account, took the money and refunded it to the guest. We lost almost $8000 in rental revenue that week as a result, It also ended up being a beautiful week at the beach.
They gave us no recourse to protect our own rights short of hiring an attorney and suing them.
They will always find in favor of the guest no matter. They will never protect the owner. There are many other sites that you can use. Stay away from HomeAway, VRBO, and Vacation Rent Payments.
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Vacation Rentals
– Phillip
We had our first VRBO guests in December. Per our payment summary on VRBO, it says funds were disbursed in November but we have not received a single payment and it is now January 29th. Their “underwriting specialists” keep giving us the runaround. They need more documentation or something is missing or not filled out correctly. Funny thing is, when there is supposedly something wrong, they don’t inform us. At the end of every message, it will say “Once these documents are received, you will receive an email with the status of your payment account” or “Once complete, you will receive an email with our decision. We apologize for any delay, and will be updating you soon.” There has never been an update. The last email, we waited 10 days without an update. We have called their customer service line in the Philippines who will tell us we submitted all the documentation and they will put a high priority case through. Then we get an email from the underwriting specialist informing us of another problem. This back and forth has been going on for almost 2 months now! If we don’t get paid soon, I will be blocking our calendar on VRBO and focusing primarily on Airbnb. Airbnb isn’t the best but at least they pay you.
This post will help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
– Phillip
Just received my 2018 1099k from yapstone, does not match my records. Waiting to see how they plan to correct it. Advise everyone to check their records. I have stopped doing business with both Home away and Vrbo. It has gone down hill since Expedia bought it.
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Vacation Rentals
– Phillip
This is the most difficult and most incompetent company I have ever dealt with (and I have dealt with many companies). We sold a property over two years ago and, although we have completed many deactivation forms, they refuse to deactivate us and continue to send us 1099s for money that they never sent us because they sent it to the new owners. Their customer service is in the Philippines and it is impossible to get anyone on the phone that has any comprehension. Never, ever use this company.
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Vacation Rentals
– Phillip
I DESPISE THIS COMPANY.
CROOKS. EVERYTHING ABOUT THEM THROUGH AND THROUGH IS ABOUT SCREWING YOU OUT OF AS MUCH AS THEY POSSIBLY CAN.
Funds holds, fraudulent chargebacks, ridiculous policies when it comes to the time period they keep your earnings (no doubt to maximize interest accumulation for them.)
Pure misery. Someone/thing needs to open an investigation on this company and have them shuttered.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
I precieved the charge made by Yapstone to be fraudulent. I thought to myself, “I’ve never heard of or dealt with a company called Yapstone before now, why would they be pulling money out of my account so close to the holidays?”
After having my checking account placed on hold and receiving a new card number, which was mandatory by my bank, because Yapstone failed to notify its customer that they would be the company pulling the money out of my account under thier name now and not Shore Storage. I’ve had no access to my money. I now have to contact every company that I held automatic payments with and change my card number. I’ve had to hold out on every other payment that was due in between this time because my card was placed on hold, also causing unnecessary damage to my reputation with companies I make payments with. Yapstone then changed the payment back to the old company, “Shore Storage”. Shore Storage didn’t see the hell I went through with this failure to communicate updates to clients and customers. So, now on top of everything else Shore Storage wants to lock up my storage unit that I’ve paid for faithfully, on time the last three years. And charge me a $25 service fee. All of this because Yapstone and Shore Storage failed to communicate with its customers.
This has to be hands down the worst service ever created in all time
I have never experienced such incompetency, blatant stupidity, buerocratic practices and utter disrespect for any one’s time
I was forced to interact with them because of my long relationship with HomeAway. 15 yrs and now that yapstone has taken over their Payments I am hesitant to carry on my relationship with HomeAway. And use solely Airbnb
God awful, rude and just simply have the dumbest folks working for them
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best Merchant Accounts for Vacation Rental
Innpayments used to be a good merchant account provider. A recent chargeback issue brought to light how much customer service at this company has deteriorated. No one could be bothered to talk to me about the chargeback. They took days to respond to my emails. I submitted information to dispute, I don’t even know if it got to the other party. I’m looking for another bank. If this one is unwilling to stand up to a guest who is bullying and is harrassing me, they certainly are not in my corner.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Fight Chargebacks and Win
Unacceptable and totally unprofessional company. taking money on our behalf and yet after 18 months have still lost a payment of just under £2000 a huge sum for me and yet they are happily using my money and not paying it to me. They say they have seen where the error is – after 18 months but I have had to spend 6 hours on the phone trying to get my money! Still not in my bank… Home Away wake up and ditch this subcontractor. Also I hugely resent Home Away telling me I have to sort this out with thier subcontractor…Home Away should do this as my rental contract is with Home Away and not Yapstone…yukk….. try and avoid or at least serioiusly and forensically check your statements and payments. I was ill and could not do this last year so trusted them to pay the right amounts which they did not. Still waiting for £1700 + a lot of money….since 2017…
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best Merchant Accounts for Vacation Rental
I have a single room renting to help with my monthly rent living here in NYC, everyone knows how tough this state is and how expensive everything is, I don’t have a luxury condo, apartment or hotel/motel, it’s just a single room, I went online searching how to make extra money and I saw homeaway/yapstone in a listing of rentals smh, I cursed the day I found them😭….
First off when I had my listing to there scamming organization they quickly booked my rooms out, first I didn’t even know it was booked, no emails, no text, no calls but now I am glad I never received those guest, further on a guest contacted me saying they was supposed to stay at my house I then called in to find out the situation that’s when I found out I had previous guest without any notification, then they fix the issue of me not getting an alert, I personally told them return theses people money I do hope they got it, fast forward to now they booked three guest for my home, two came and stayed that was in October when I asked about my payment they said it will take 30days for the funds to be released and 5 to 7 business days for it to be in my bank account that’s been almost 2months and I am yet to see a single dime in my account, I called in numerous times and each time they said I need some kind of documents for it to be released after I provide all they said I need they give another time frame(lies) when the money is to be in my account I waited and waited and nothing, each time no money, I called a few days ago and I heard on their automated system they saying advanced pay I ask what was that about,they said if you the host want to get their money quickly without the hassle there’s a yearly subscription of $499, that’s when I fully understand that this company HOMEAWAY/VRBO/YAPSTONE are scammers, they torture ur payments, put you through stress, lie to you all the time, used ur home to scam guest and hosts for their convenience and there is nothing that can be done. Now for the third guest, luckily that was stopped, that guest stole someone card and made the reservation and the person whom the card had belonged to stop payment before that person was checked in, now did Homeaway/Yapstone get to the bottom of this and rectify the problem no, they went behind my back dipped into my account and took money out without my permission and claimed I have to pay for that fraud when it was in no way my concerns or problem, after being on the phone hours about this they were heartless clearly saying I have to pay for something I have no control over, so i called my bank and explained and they blocked them and got my money returned to me. Now you see the scam that am dealing with, they can send people to my home, they collect the money find every way under the sun for me not to get my payments, charge me for their mishandlings and has scammers talking to me on the phone as if am stupid, directly saying pay for yearly subscription of $499 if you do not want this problem again of not receiving your money, they are heartless, thieves, scammers and liars…up to this day I haven’t receive a dime after hosting those two guest almost two months now. So pls share this with whom you can and stay away from these people, all of the representatives I have spoken with seems that there in another country not from the USA and that’s another red flag that HOMEAWAY/YAPSTONE are scammers, stay away!!!!!!
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best Merchant Account Providers for Vacation Rentals
Totally agree with you!
Yapstone/Homeaway attempting to do a charge back for “unauthorized” credit card charge by the guest who stayed in my apartment, enjoyed herself and even left a great 5 star review.
This company does not permit owners and property managers to handle payments or to see credit cards of the guests who pay to stay in our properties. We have no way to prevent fraudulent charges, yet when an unauthorized charge occurs this company attempts to take the money we were paid for the guest’s stay out of our bank account.
Yapstone charges us a fee to process the on line rental payments, but takes no responsibility for problems and offers no fraud protection.
Worst experience ever and I have removed my properties from Homeaway!
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Fight Chargebacks and Win
I totally agree with all the negative comments on this thread and the reviews regarding yapstone HomeAway and VRBO. They obviously are not protectingthe owners of the properties, but keeping all of their service face. There were funding over what the guests actually paid to the owner of the property even when the guests actually spent the night in the property. The guest doesn’t even have to prove that they found an issue or had a problem because there was not an issue or problem at my place. My guess simply got mad because I didn’t have pay-per-view Sports on the TV. My advertising does not say that I offer that. They not only gave this guest a complete refund they paid for him to stay another week at a hotel they took every penny back away from me and they notified me 8 weeks later that they’re refunding another $346 that I never even got back to this guest. They tell me they’re taking it out of my bank account whether I like it or not and they’re also adding an additional $15 service charge fee because of the credit card chargeback that this gas has requested. So not only did I lose a night’s rent had to pay a cleaning fee because the gas use the bed and the kitchen and the stove, but now they’re giving him back an additional $346 of my money that he never paid to start with and they’re charging me $15 to do it. I am absolutely canceling my account with VRBO and HomeAway and I’m considering a class a lawsuit. If anybody would like to join me please find me. If anybody already has a class a lawsuit going, please find me.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best Merchant Accounts for Vacation Rental
I’ve been working with them for more than a month to get my information set up.. The people they have sending emails make me want to off myself. Litterally, I have spent HOURS trying to resolves this matter. Finally, I get someone on the phone and they help me resolve it (Or so I thought).. Next thing I know, that same email conversation is just saying that don’t have what they need and they want to stop paying me.. I think they need to fix their “callcenters” and “customer support”.. Jesus Christ, They need to learn how to run a proper business, I will never do business with them again.
From The Editor
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The heavy handed practices of yapstone cost VRBO my patronage as an experienced property manager with multiple listings. A never ending litany of documentation requests (only after they have my money) and withholding disbursements until they get their way. I’ve been in business almost 3 decades, I can see trouble much earlier than I used to. No thanks, I choose to partner with other platforms that are more aligned with my interests. VRBO, you need to ditch this 3rd party processor while you still have a business worth saving. Otherwise, the Airbnbs of the rental world will eat your lunch. Call me when you ditch these guys, and we can discuss partnering up again…
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best Payment Processors for Vacation Rental
the worst company ever is yapstone who is hired by homeaway They just take the money of the account without even asking if thats right . Its because the clients file a complaint against them then they automatically take the money from the owners !!! Be very very very very careful with them they are the worst peoples ever and do NOT take any responsibility
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best Merchant Accounts for Vacation Rental
this is exactly what they did also in my case, the renter file a case and Yapstone take the money from the owner of the apt without even evaluating the case.
In the T&C which the owner accepts when subscribing to the service it is also stated that the owner is responsible for any chargeback case it will be raised. So what is the service they provide? It is better for the owner manage the payment via paypal so that the owner can have a minimum of control, instead of Yapstone that is totally unreliable and unprofessional
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Fight Chargebacks and Win
Yapstone must be the most useless payment company in the world and the most expensive to process payments too.
It makes no sense. The service is rubbish, yet they charge the most ridiculous amount for such rubbish service.
Please release Bernard Madoff and lock up everyone working in this company instead. I am so livid smoke is coming out of my ears.
John P.
From The Editor
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Hard to describe the level of incompetency with Yapstone. Six months ago they refunded money to my renter which they should not have. Fortunately I have good relations with my renters and I solved the issue with the renter directly. Now Yapstone comes back to me six months later and says the problem is resolved in my favor. Well, I went round and round with a Yapper who clearly did not know what he was talking about. I could have sworn I heard clown music playing in the background. It has been 3 months since that call and Yapstone did not give me my money back that they said they would. Fortunately I did not take Yapstone’s word and refund the money to the renter, which I would have to do if Yapstone really gave me the money back 6 months after the issue had been resolved.
I have had to add another level of checks and balances to my system just to check up on Yapstone because they just could be the worst company in the world.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best Merchant Accounts for Vacation Rentals
What Legal Liability Does VRBO Have For Partnering With YAPSTONE To Process Payments? Statements say HOMEAWAY PAYMENTS. Homeaway and Vrbo are one and the same. What are the Legal liabilities Payment Processors have when in control of private citizen’s money??? I chose not to opt in for early payouts from Yapstone for a 3% fee.
Yet after months of me allowing Yapstone to hold onto over $12,000 of payments to avoid the 3% fee, Yapstone charged me $360 in early pay out fees and paid me the $12,000 they had control of for months (one payment was for a renter staying that week and I was due the money anyway!) Yapstone claims I must have clicked “Opt in” in an email they had sent me months earlier. I was not and don’t know how this happened! Techies have said I must have gotten to Yapstone through a back door. Ironically, I was on my laptop researching alternatives to Vrbo and Yapstone for processing vacation rental payments as I don’t trust either. The screen then displayed a message saying I opted in for early payouts with Yapstone! I was shocked and located an email address on the screen (but no phone number) to contact if there was a problem. I immediately sent an email Yapstone saying I DON’T WANT EARLY PAYOUTS. I called Vrbo and was told there should be no issue. Two days later I received an email with a statement from Homeaway payments paying multiple rentals out and deducting $360 (3%). I’ve contacted both companies multiple times, but both Yapstone and Vrbo refuse to show me how I was converted to Early payouts and refuse to reverse their error. Despite multiple communications, weeks later, a renter made a second payment and Yapstone/Homeaway deducted another 3% early payout fee! “HOMEAWAY” is also VRBO and is on all payment statements. I believe Vrbo (owned by Expedia) should be involved with resolving this. Any ideas?
We have a rental property on VRBO. Had the renter from Hades in June. Thought we had it all settled in July. Then Sept. 24, Yapstone took $300 from our checking account because this renter said he had paid a $300 fee twice. We sent all the documentation to VRBO and Yapstone showing the renter had not paid a $300 fee twice and thought (again) it was settled. This morning we got an email from Yapstone indicating they needed a “rebuttal letter” from us plus screen shots of all emails pertaining to this renter and it was due today. Tried to settle with VRBO and Yapstone on a conference call. Yapstone would not budge. We complied as best we could and are crossing our fingers. Asked what documentation the renter had sent to prove his claim and Yapstone rep didn’t know. Interesting how they can just go into our account and arbitrarily send money to a renter. Yapstone is a terrible company to deal with.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best Merchant Accounts for Vacation Rentals
I am still waiting for a payment from a guest stay in May 2018, it is now October 2018. The payment is via VRBO who uses HolidayRentPayment which is Yapstone. I have had a number of calls and the customer service is terrible. Each time i get a difference response and even after following their instructions… months later have still not had resolve and gotten my money.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Funds
I don’t know why this is allowed to go on. Yapstone just does whatever they want and they know they can get away with it. I can’t tell you the number of times I have called there and they told me that they would email back within 48 hours never to happen. They lie all the time and they get away with it. Are they not regulated by some federal agency?
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best Merchant Accounts for Great Customer Service
I have no words. I am an owner of a VRBO property that rents. I have a request for next summer, almost one year from now. I am on the check payment route (of which i have no choice). That means I do not receive payment until the day after the renters check in…one year from now. So the renters are required to put 50% down when booking. In this particular case that would be $8,000.00 for a month rental. Yapstone now will keep my $8,000.00 for one year. I can only collect the money up front if I am on the Advanced Pay system. I cannot get on the Advanced pay system until Yapstone “decides” that I can be on it. I have asked when that would be and they have told me they don’t know because the computer chooses that!!!!!! This is bazaar, they have my money for a year and I have no control over that or even when that can change. HomeAway you need to find another vendor to handle your payments. Are there not laws to protect consumers in this regard?
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best Merchant Account for Vacation Rentals
I have requested to change the bank account details over 4 month ago and this process is still ongoing, resulting in not receiving payments that guests already paid to yapstone and that yapstone is not paying back over to us as per agreement.
There is no proper team to deal with complaints or capable of solving or handling problems that are presented to them, instead they send out automated emails with no relevance or solution to the problem.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best Merchant Accounts for Great Customer Service
As property owner, have received a chargeback request from Yapstone (the company managing the online payment for Homeaway) for the following case:
– the guest used a wrong email account when submitting the request for booking that I have accepted
– because of the wrong email account all my emails to the guest did not arrive to destination, and the guest did not show up at the check in, resulting in a “no-show”. In the meanwhile the guest had booked another apartment via a different B&B portal and claimed for the refund of the money.
Apart from any evaluation of the Homeaway.com booking system, Yapstone claim the T&C I have accepted when subscribing to Homeaway on line payment, makes the subscriber responsible for any kind of charge back. As a matter of fact I have provided to Yapstone the data to dispute the chargeback but they came back with a laconic statement saying I had lost the dispute without any clarification. I have also requested them to call me but without any result. At the end of the story Yapstone are willing to recover the money from my bank account
In summary:
– Yapstone is a scam with their T&C which make the owner of the apt responsible also for actions which are responsibility of others
– do not factually support the owner of the apt in the when problem arises
– again a scam since they get a commission for the payment but without providing any additional service I could get having the payment done via paypal
– Yapstone communicated to me that l have lost the dispute for the case with Visa (also in this for unknown reasons, even if I suspect because Yapstone had not put any effort in disputing the credit card charge back) so I should refund the payment.
To me this is a real scam by Homeaway
Is there a way I can dispute the above and have Homeaway to bear their responsibilities?
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Fight Chargebacks
Yap Stone pulled $1400.00 from my account and will not help me figure out why!!! Terrible customer service. The bank closed my account. I have no money for food because of the over draft fees. My bills are paid electronically.
If Yap stone had given me warning about the “re-capture” I could have transfered funds from savings to checking.. I had no warning so all my bills bounced! NO help offered. Home Away will not take any ownership.
Not trustworthy! Patrice.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
this company files false chargebacks and charges the merchant and keeps the money. its a scam they RE the payment processor fpr vrbo and once your guest stays there they send you a flase email stating theres been a chargeback when in reality when i contacted my guest they said they never filed a chargeback.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Fight Chargebacks
Yapstone is a fraudulent organization. Illegal chargebacks for rentals on my units listed on the vrbo, homeaway site. They have done this to many other owners listed on this site and there is a long list of complaints. I have lost more than $5000 because of this company. As a result, I will not work with homeaway any longer. the home owner is not protected. Please beware of Yapstone —and the way they operate
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best Merchant Accounts for Timeshares & Vacation Rentals
Yapstone is the absolute WOAT! Complete nightmare and I’m now pulling all of my properties off of HomeAway until we find another solution. Would rather receive no bookings at all as it would save us money.
I’m amazed at the things I’ve read here. I forwarded your website to my sister who has several properties she rents in order to warn her never to use this company. I appreciate your work, Phillip Parker. We need many more honest people in this country! I would think EVERY person who has commented here should contact the law site that does Class ACTION Law Website to start a class action if one hasn’t already been done against Yapstone to get your money back!! Best of luck
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best Merchant Accounts for Vacation Rentals
Horrible, absolutely horrible in all aspects!! That is all I can say. Used with VRBO
Currently I am trying to work Yapstone through Home Away/ VRBO. As a current owner, it is the worst business experience I have ever had. The right had doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. I have been trying to make changes on a VRBO listing and it has been over a month. DO NOT USE HOME AWAY, VRBO OR YAPSTONE
The most infuriating company ever. Basically VRBO gave them the right to steal from their clients. I will also pull my listing from #VRBO and #HomeAway This is ILLEGAL!
They will keep your money and then make a poor Phillipino tell you they cannot help you as they are only a call centre person who knows nothing. It’s the biggest SCAM I have seen. VRBO you SUCK. I hope you go bankrupt because of this. You deserve it.
This company, working in conjunction with Homeaway and it’s affilates is a true nightmare! Had to pull all my listings for a simple bank account change. I’ve decided to only list in Airbnb.
After being on the phone for almost an hour with people that can’t see the forest from the trees – I gave up! – Yapstone and VRBO because of its relationship with Yapstone are the most inept organizations on earth……Thank goodness there are other choices……..
Yapstone is a total scam. They have my account information from when we first setup the account. 3 payments have been sent but still not deposited into my account. I have verified the account information it is correct. They are holding the money for no reason and making interests on it. I have since been trying to switch my bank account even tried to close the account and I can’t. DO NOT USE YAPSTONE, you will regret it.
I hammered every c level executive in the company at yapstone and VRBO via several emails containing the issues at hand. Actually, the CEO of VRBO had vast concerns and because of this, I finally got them to deposit 3K into my bank for a rental 8 months prior. They claim a lease is needed because they are such an ethical company. It’s total bullshit and they don’t know the rules of each state. I do think they are figuring it out as they need to provide better service in order to stay in business. I do hope that VRBO gets rid of them as their payment processor so that I can do business with them again. In addition, they charge such high fees that people should always rent on airbnb since there is often duplicate listings. If you rent from Air BNB it’s a lot cheaper for the homeowner and the guest.
I am an owner with home away. The 1099 yk i provided is way of the chart. Over 20k. We i try to contact you , you send me to homeaway. I will close my account with HM because of the service yoiu provide.
Yapstone is the most awful company, I was using this company and I almost went out of business, my costumers hated and complained all the time. I hate this company and please help me to report so they can go out of business, RUDE EMPLOYEES, AWFUL SYSTEM, HATE THIS GARBAGE.
HomeAway and HomeAway Payments (Yapstone) allowed approximately $150,000 worth of PAST and future reservations REFUNDS on 9 of my homes on 11/21/17. The claimed they opened an investigation and will not share the results or proof that my account was hacked and they are suing me for the funds.
Not impressed. If they would spend as much time on customer service as they did on their cutesy little Yap story, they would get better outcomes.
I am a rental vendor, and firstly I had three emails from the Yappers, all from different reps. For better service they should have one rep follow through until the case is closed. I told my story (it was just a misunderstanding from the renter) and basically all I got was rote, robotic replies. No help to resolve the issue, no Amazon or Disney-type, go the extra mile, service.
I just let it drop with them and I will handle with my guest directly. I felt I would just be wasting my time with Yap going down rabbit holes and getting more frustrated.
An exotic, Micronesian story of stones will not differentiate them from other financial services companies. They will need to put the work in.
And from the other stories I am seeing, looks like I will have to watch this company very closely.
Terrible customer service, their accounting system in not intuitive, they charge higher credit card fees than most. STEER clear of this credit card processor
Yapstone is supporting a bunch of CROOKS and thieves ! Never accept any business with such a company, even a relation ship through others like Homeaway etc.*All are the same :
Birds of a feather….
I hate crooks like these !
Most horrible company. They have $17,600 of my money ! I am thinking about hiring an attorney. My customers have paid them through VRBO/ Homeaway payments and they have not disbursed in 30+ days. Every time I call they say somebody with their tech dept. will get back with me in 24-48 hours. I have now called them back 7 times going back over 3 1/2 weeks and nobody has ever called me back. They don’t have a phone number for their “tech dept” or a supervisor or manager that I can get in touch with. I just get their call center help desk employees that repeat again and again somebody will call me. I HAVE NEVER RECEIVED A CALL.
Yapstone has customers doing their footwork for them. Yapstone required that I go to my bank and physically request a letter in writing signed by a bank official stating, that the account that I provided showing a voided check was actually a legitimate account. Other companies, such as Airbnb verify that accounts are legitimate themselves, and don’t rely on customers to do their footwork. The way that Yapstone does business is insulting to the customers that they serve.
Yapstone aka HolidayRentPayment is the Worst of All – Charge Highest Fees, Full of Frauds & Totally Irresponsible
It is so easy for any fraudster to cheat & buy your goods / use your services for free. You can get a chargeback months down the road from a cheating guest, claiming whatever ridiculous excuse. Whenever you get that, Yapstone / HolidayRentPayment to do something, for they’re the ones charging extra fees every time to handle the “fund processing”.
Well, don’t bother. You WILL lose every dollar and more, for you have to pay Yapstone extra “processing fees” to “fight the chargeback”. Yapstone / HolidayRentPayment will happily pocket that extra fee from you, but won’t do anything at all.
We just went through such a process at the end of 2017, from a VISA chargeback claimed by a Portuguese speaking lady named “Joanie Bordeleau” (female, dark skin but not totally black, in early 20s in 2017, about 160cm / 5’3″), who turned out to be not only a lying & cheating fraudster but also a prostitute working mainly in Laval / Montreal area, based on private investigation with solid proof.
The following is the exact process we went through with Yapstone / HolidayRentPayment, and see with your own eyes how unprofessional, incompetent & ridiculous that company is.
1. Got email from Yapstone regarding the chargeback
2. We emailed evidences and documents on the next day to Yapstone to fight the fraudulent chargeback, totally following instructions on Yapstone’s email
3. We then called Yapstone and confirmed they received our response
4. We also received email from Yapstone confirming they received our response
5. Weeks down the road, just days before the “evidence sending deadline”, we received another email from Yapstone, claiming they haven’t received any evidence from us so there’s nothing they can do unless we do that right away. Ridiculously, in that same email, you can see their previous confirmation that they received our evidence and documents
6. We emailed evidences and documents, again for the 2nd time, to Yapstone right away
7. We again received email from Yapstone confirming they received our documents, and they will “submit your chargeback dispute documents to the card issuing bank”
8. About a week after the deadline, we received another email from Yapstone, saying “Please be informed as we did not receive a response before the expiration date provided in our initial e-mail, this case has now been closed per regulatory guidelines. Unfortunately, we have no further chargeback rights to pursue on your behalf.” And right in that same email, you can see their previous two confirmations, yes TWICE, that they received our evidence and documents
If the first time mess up was due to Yapstone’s unprofessionalism & incompetence, the 2nd time exact same mess up can’t be explained by any logic. The only explanation left is Yapstone purposely designs its system to not give owner / host any chance to win back any chargeback. Instead, it happily helps any fraudster to cheat money out of honest owner/host’s pocket, for it can shamelessly make extra in “processing fees”.
We did a brief Google search and it proves our suspicion. Many other owners/hosts went through the same process of being cheated by fraudulent chargebacks. The loss is anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand, or even in one case $15,000 on a luxury vacation property. Sadly in all those cases, not a single owner/host ever got anything back from the fraudsters. Thanks to VRBO / HomeAway & its payment handling partner Yapstone aka HolidayRentPayment’s astonishingly irresponsible operations.
I have been dealing with Yapstone for many years and 2017 is by far the worst year of dealing with this company. Each year gets worse for chargebacks. I’m now working on 6 months on getting my money back on an initiated chargeback from a guest that I won. I had to go to the Sales Representative Tony Maskell to get help. He disregarded my email and said it was out of his hands. Yet he said if there were any problems to contact him.
It appears that they put an outrageous amount of lead time for responses and reviewing. Then they never notify you about the result of the case, so more time goes by. Then they say they will place the money in the account 10-14 days. Lies again. If I wasn’t on top of this they would have collected a lot of money. They say they have to wait for the funds to come from the cardholders bank, lies again, they have the money in the account. My money is working for them and not me. 6 months with my money, it could have earned at least, the very least 3%. One would think that putting a large amount of transactions through this company would give you priority, ha, no. I;m fed up finally and I am switching.
Hi, I’m a consumer who found your site due to an unrecognized CHARGE on my credit card by WEPAY. Thank you for your site. I can understand that merchants would also be concerned about bogus charges themselves if using a service such as this. I am irritated with the entire electronic payment situation overall. ..I intend to go back to using cash more often, for I suspected before all this electronic stuff caught on that it would be a blessing for the unscrupulous to steal people’s money. Now it seems certain…when I had a bogus charge on my Visa and Visa rectified the problem by canceling my account and issuing me a new card and number. Fine for me, except it showed as a ‘closed’ account on my credit report. Keep up doing the work you are doing. there are many of us normal, uncomplicated people out here who appreciate your efforts and just want to live without the insanity and craziness of the profiteers!!!
I recently took in a booking and the guest paid $660.00 to reserve this home. Yap stone is keeping that money and the balance of $19486.00 for the next 6 months because they said I signed up for extended Payments. I never did. They said it will take 5-7 business days to get it resolved. Really? No one signs up for them to hold my money until the people check in 6 months later. The fact that it takes 5-7 days to get a response is insane. Very shoddy and it is the last rental I will agree to until they get it resolved and I get my money.
This is the WORST company I have EVER dealt with. Honestly. They cannot get anything right. Ever. I hate that Homeway uses them. Every time I have to do anything with them, there is something wrong with some form. And their reps suck. One tells you one thing, you do it, only to be told by another rep to do something else. Yapstone, you suck.
This company has displayed a complete level of incompetence. I have literally written dozens of emails (over 50) and multiple calls regarding an error they seem to have made with AmEx. On multiple occasions notes have been incomplete and I have had to start from the beginning when calling in, at times being told they have no or missing records, despite at other times being told they had everything they need. While all have agreed I am in the right, there is have no resolution after weeks of trying with them. I cannot warn highly enough this company is worthless in resolving issues.
I am going tbrough the same problem. its been months. Capitol One made a mistake and I have the proof but I’m still out $1000.00. Dont know what to do. Take Yapstone to court or Capitol One? Wonder how much money they get away with stealing from us. It’s like talking to a wall.
Just to let everyone know after 6 months I finally got my money. Capitol One had made the error and released the funds back to the renter who paid me. This happened after I researched everything and figured out wha t was going on. Yapstone basically did a lot of yapping but nothing until I figured it out. I sure hope this doesnt happen again. 6 months and 80 hours later. I also found a good person in their Walnut Creek Office. One problem is when you email or call, you get a new person every time, either in Ireland or California.
Did you have to pay the service fee of $250?
My husband and I have a property we rent out through VRBO. Yapstone provides services to this company for money transactions. A traveller made a false claim of over payment and the bankcard demanded money back from us. The money was taken and given to the traveller who made the fraudlent claim. Yapstone asked us for signature indicating acceptance of contract. We provided them the information they wanted and apparently the bank card will not accept the information. Yapstone is doing the bidding of the bank and not protecting the homeowners using the VRBO service from fraudulent claims. Basically all we have gotten from them is a shrug and a finger and nothing else. They, to my knowledge have not asked VRBO to provide the evidence in support of our contention that the traveller made a false claim and that the contract is signed electronically. This is a company that is in it for themselves and screw the client (we are the client to their client)
Absolutely the worst at processing payments and customer service is of no help. Better off having payments forwarded by carrier pigeons.
I am awaiting in what seems to be mid air for some answers, some payments for my holiday letting to be sorted, some statements of accounting for my holiday lets. the lack of payments or wrong amounts is just so confusing. This day and age I would have thought it would be simple but human error is interfering. Flabergasterd, disgusted, appaulled all come to mind.
This company should be rated D for dangerous, I recently came across a very unpleasant situation of a customer claiming a fraud after staying a month in my property yet somehow yapstone transferred the liability on the due processing and fraud scanning of the card payment to me when they are the ones who should be doing this before taking a payment. Ridiculous. Not only they charge a non refundable fee for any chargeback regardless of the outcome, but if needed to get to arbitration they charge a fee on top of that, basically for not being able to gather the necessary information needed to solve the dispute. Bottom line, signing with these guys is buying a problem for sure, soon or later they’ll let you down.
I am having the same problem. I had a lady rent my home through vrbo and then cancel so I got paid and then got debited which was fine. Then she rebooked, stayed at my house, then filed a chargeback against the second payment saying she never saw her refund from the cancellation. Capstone tried to deduct the second payment but I stopped payment from my bank. They now are holding any payments through vrbo hostage even though I would think that’s illegal. No one seems to care. I am really frustrated.
The same here. I am now leaving VRBO aka HOMEAWAY because of this, but still looking to get this fixed. Probably a class action suit should be made so they do not get away with it.
Yapstone is currently withholding funds due me as an owner of property that I have listed with VRBO. I changed by direct deposit banking information two months ago and after many blood-pressure spiking phone calls and emails, I thought everything was on track – only to receive an email from them stating my account was not active. This is not true and has been confirmed by VRBO representatives. Logically, how could the property not be active, if they have received bookings? I am seriously considering hiring an attorney and am looking into changing my subscription to a more reputable and customer-service oriented short-term booking platform.
I would not recommend VPR and this is why.
We own two rental properties and rent them out very successfully on several of the major vacation rental websites.
We have had a lot of trouble with Vacation Rent Payments . They have kept our rental payments hostage for many months, I am talking about thousands of dollars that have been bounced back to VPR because they were mistakenly sending funds to a closed account. It took several weeks of back and forth with their customer service and VRBO / HomeAway customer support to solve the problem.
My point is how can a company just sit on so much money that isn’t theirs? VPR should have alerted me to the fact that the account on file was closed and that money was being bounced back.
So fortunately, updating my account problem was resolved and my deposit banking information was updated.
Now I call back again to see when the funds will be released, I am told the issue needs to be reviewed by the underwriters to release the thousands of dollars the VPR company owes us. In the meantime we have a mortgage on this property and have been paying for it out of our personal savings, etc.
Long story longer, it has been great working with VRBO / HomeAway but I am not pleased with the payment disbursement company Vacatom Rent Payments. The communication between the two companies systems is poor both in technology and communication, a lot of finger pointing goes on.
Anyway, stay away please. If you are a company looking to use them I would think twice about it.
We pay credit card fees with each booking. When a guest canceled without required 30 days notice, Yapstone requested information from me. They say they don’t have access to the correspondence or the cancellation policy. I had to contact Home Away to get their copy of their correspondence with the guest. Anyway, it was not sufficient to keep the deposit. So now what do we do? I paid $3000.00 in a illegal chargeback. Which includes an additional $500 to Yapstone. Anyone else have illegal chargebacks that benifits Yapstone? Why are we paying fees if we don’t have representation?
They took out nearly $500 in a chargeback. Blamed it on the renters bank. Told me that I needed to do the leg work to prove that the chargeback wasn’t legit. Then said that in order to really handle this where I actually end up with my money, that I should have that tenant send me a check for the amount of the chargeback. Otherwise the process will take forever and I may not win. So I ask how can this be? The tenant stayed at my house last month. He even left a review. What else is there that needs to proven? I contacted VRBO and all they could say was well, we don’t handle money. That’s Yapstone so you’ll need to contact them. And I assured them that I understood that but yapstone needs proof that these people stayed at my house and you can provide that to them very easily. After all, Yapstone works for you since I had no choice in you enlisting them to handle your booking transactions. And VRBO very quickly reminds me that Yapstone is a separate company and they do not work for them. It’s a vicious cycle of speaking to reps with single digit IQs. VRBO used to be a quality service for owners and tenants. Now, their use of a company like Yapstone (who by the way keeps 3% of every transaction and for what????) is evident that they are no longer a company with integrity. It’s a shame.
RentPayment – Powered by YapStone™ (NMLS #1488912)
This place is horrible. I’ve owned houses all my life, but since I only planned to be in the state I am living in for about 4 years or so, I decided I would just rent. Well, the apartment complex I moved into uses this service. The first month, they had issues when I submitted my account information. They finally paid, but it was after my very short due date, so I got charged an extra $100 dollars by my apartment complex. The next month, it was supposed to be easy since my information was already in their system. Well, there was some kind of technical issue on their side. I thought everything went through, but after me finding out there was no payment sent, I called them, they assured me they would take care of it and that I would not ONCE AGAIN get another $100 late fee, they came back after the fact to the apartment complex saying they were not sure, so I got charged again. I don’t know about anyone else using this service, but I cannot afford to use their useless payment and support system anymore. I almost think they do this to help the management companies make more profit at the expense of the renters. Renters basically have no say in anything when there are big companies running the show together.
Useless company. Cannot handle payments. Cannot be contacted. They keep sending me notifications for properties I am not associated with. Their “knowledge database” gives you advice it does not work. They do not allow to reset my password for whatever reason. They behave like scammers not like honest business.
I am a homeowner who lists my vacation property through VRBO. They use Yapstone as their payment processor. They extracted $843 from my account stating a guest complained. Indeed he did not and I have emails from him stating that he was there and enjoying it. I used our corresondence in order to show Yapstone that they have the wrong person/wrong property. 2 months later I’m still waiting, and am told I have 1 more month to wait until the “cardholders issuing bank” decides whether or not to refund the money. Why should any company be able to extract money from your account and then say they have no accountability for what happens? Still waiting for response, but I suspect fraud.
I have never dealt with a company of idiots like these people. I am listed on vrbo I was unable to send the
change form for my new bank account thru the computer, it kept sending it back, so i filled out the form they asked for and made 2 copies along with a voided check attached to each. sent one to Walnut Creek address and one to Ireland address. I spent 2 weeks trying to get this done with them on the phone. Last nite a 2:30 am, my phone rang twice, It woke me up and i finally was afraid it was a family emergency NO it was Yap Stone from Ireland, then a email followed. The situation still has not resolved, i have made a complaint to vrbo who uses Yapstone to transfer $$ I never want to deal with this company again. I will stop using the vrbo on line booking if this is not rectified asap and go back to using my independent merchant for my bookings. Vrbo will loose their booking fees and i will be done with this nightmare…..
Everyone who has been ripped off by YapStone needs to file a complaint about them to the CA Attorney:
https://oag.ca.gov/contact/consumer-complaint-against-business-or-company
They claim to use advanced fraud detection techniques but they don’t even check the name on the credit card; they don’t provide any information to the property owner so that the property owner can check the credit card against the ID, and they make their money from chargeback fees.
By far one, Yapstone is the most unorganized companies ever. I got a 1099K from them for a rent house that went to the wrong address They can’t give me back up for their numbers, They didn’t turn it in on time and when I called them and they had the rudest person on the phone in the history of customer service. Unfortunately Vrbo is affiliated with them and they are the payment service contractor.
I have to use VRP due to the fact they are the only allowed Gateway for Homeaway. They are quite honestly the worst. I called them on a void for a refund on Tuesday. I explained the urgency in which this needed to be done. I was told they wouldn’t be able to do it and a supervisor would call me back. Today is Friday, the supervisor left me a voice mail today saying it was too late to void the transaction and next time I should call the same day. I am beyond words with this group. They have zero customer service and support is always the same – none. Unfortunately, I have no choice as Homeaway forces Property Managers to use them as the interface between my software and my merchant processing company. Ascent Processing does my actual merchant processing and I love them. If you have a choice I would never recommend them.
I have been an owner customer of VRBO for 6 years. Around 1 year ago, VRBO changed its business model to take a fee per booking,
with them collecting the fees from traveler. In January of 2017, they sent me a request saying someone was interested in staying in my
property, and asking me to accept their inquiry. I did. They stayed in the property for around one week, and VRBO collected their payment. Later on, the card holder challenged the charge, and I have just been told by VRBO’s payment processing arm, the charge was fraudulent. VRBO payment processing arm is saying I am responsible for this, while they are the ones who found the traveler and
collected his funds, and should have done a better job in identity verification.
People who have left similar complaints should consider whether the bank card actually instigated a chargeback. Yapstone gives you no evidence of the chargeback – who’s to say they don’t instigate a fake chargeback just to claw the money back from your account. You just don’t see the number of similar complaints in reviews of other processing companies. Time for a class-action lawsuit?
This company should be reported and shut down. They try to hide negative reviews like they hide their service fees. Nobody should ever trust this company with their money or personal information. RUN, fast and far, if your told you have to use them.
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY AS YOUR MERCHANT ACCOUNT. THEY WILL NOT FIGHT FOR YOU ON CHARGES BACKS.
If you want a Merchant Account that will not fight for you on fraudulent charge backs, then you found the right company. Their success rates is barely 5%.
Most of the time, they don’t even submit the claim to the credit holder’s bank. They provide no documentation from the bank when the charge back is declined. They want you to file a “Pre-Arbitration for $300” because that when they make their money. And guess who overseas the Pre Arbtration. You guessed it? Yapstone itself. For Vacation Rent Payment aka Yapstone, there is no incentive to protect you and do their job. It’s not a scam. It is just fraudulent behavior.
READ OTHER REVIEWS. IT’S ALL OVER THE NET.
Very poorly run organization. This is the 3rd year we are not able to get our 1099s.. which we must file our taxes by March 15th. NO ONE seems to be able to provide an acceptable answer. The ONLY response I get is that someone will get back to me. It’s been a month now. Ridiculous.
Am seriously looking for another company with a 5.0 rating (or close).
Ozlem Tezveren
Jan 17, 11:22 AM PST
Hello Ruth,
I have received the outcome of the investigation and i see that it is in favor of your company vrbo, payment process center yapstone, credit company of the guest and the guest himself.
How fair is that!
Vrbo allows the profile on its site. Which in this case is a criminal guest! who used a stolen card to make reservation through yapstone payment services who stayed one night in my house and left plenty of evidences of illegal activities such as drugs left in the house that i tracked down, documented by pictures who also took my keys with him, and got lost. As a result i had to change my door key system altogether. Which i reported both incidents to vrbo and insurance services.
So in all off this steps above there is two parties that are not liable to this scam . That is the card holder and the owner of the property.
I understand the credit company that wants to protect their customer rights and reimbursing the amount to the guest’s account.
And you?
Look it is clear that i have no wrong doing on this and it is your company whose poor screening system allows a criminal to stay in my house and who also accepts the form of payment.
From your discouraging response i see that it would be more of a waste of my time and my money to go arbitration.
So instead of your advice of pursuing this matter on my own through enforcement and legal action i will choose to pursue this poor handling and the while case by reporting this incident to better business bureau and all media outlets such as twitter, facebook, all rental exchange forums that i can think of.
If you look in my vrbo history i have been a good and old client to you who you should also consider to protect. instead you allow all dues and responsibilities of your lacking handling of this misconduct fall on me.
Again how fair and nice of the company that i have worked with so many years.
If there is anything that can be done to reverse or fix this unfortunate situation ?please let me know.
Otherwise see you and social media and all sorts of outlets that i can tell how unfair and wrong your business handlings.
Thanks for your time.
Özlem Tezveren
619 244 5958
[email protected]
Ruth B. (VacationRentPayment)
Jan 19, 3:26 PM PST
Hello Özlem,
I truly apologize for your dissatisfaction.
We here at Yapstone assist you through the chargeback process and provide as much information as we can on the chargeback throughout the case, to better guide you. We also have a fraud team here, who attempts to catch fraudulent bookings and attempts to stop them.
In order for a transaction to be approved the person using the card must have all the correct information. But that does not guarantee that the transaction is legitimate. It is always a good idea for the property owner to proper identify the person who is checking into the property by checking their ID and the debit/credit card that was used for the booking.
Due to the high volume of fraud throughout the payment industry, it is very important for us to have a strong and advanced fraud team and for our property owners to take extra steps to proper identify the person checking in.
I can provide you with helpful tips on what steps you can take to better protect yourself and what to look for to attempt to catch fraud, while our fraud team is also working daily to catch fraudulent bookings.
Below is the link:
http://vacationrentpayment.com/chargeback-best-practices
Best Regards,
Ruth B.
Trust & Safety Chargeback Specialist
866 210 6106
Fax 866-290-4622
I also used Homeaway to rent a vacation rental and also used Yapstone like many others and was the victim of a fraudulent chargeback.
I decided to contest the chargeback and provided the company with all the requested documentation. I had a lot of supporting documentation that is was fraudulent.
On 1/16/17 I received an email notification that my property was found in favor and my account would be credited in 10-14 days. Has this happened to anyone else? Still have not received the money, company does not return emails, can’t reach them by phone.
This is a predatory, deceptive company. Beware of Yapstone. I will never use this company again or homeaway either because of there affiliation with them.]
These people should be in jail.
I am interested in class action suit as well. I discussing recourse with a lawyer now. In the meantime I am telling every vacation owner I know not to use them.
Let me know if you get a class action suit going 925-383-0227. I have been scammed by them also.
I used Yapstone for 2 holiday homes, only because Homeaway directed me to them ( a red flag in itself-do they get a kick back for each referral? Why no other choice of provider?). Anyway, Yapstone talk of using sophisticated fraud detection techniques on their website. This is simply not the case and they did not identify a basic fraud. Yapstone’s remedy was to reverse the funds out of my bank account (as per their terms and conditions) and leave me no recourse. When I raised this with Yapstone senior management (took ages to crawl my way up to someone who had any decision making capability) they acknowledged their fault but refused to change their operating procedures (or offer me any compensation). What really sucks is that on Yapstone’s website they espouse high values – yet seem happy to ignore customer satisfaction or learn from their (acknowledged) mistakes. This smacks of arrogance and a company that has forgotten its roots. In any market there is a choice-avoid Yapstone if at all possible.
If you are forced to see this merchant account provider through your contract with homeaway you will find they have no reporting tools, limited customer service and a somewhat slack approach to transferring money out to you.
There seems to be no way to reconcile what your guests pay and what you receive. The concept is good, the delivery is shocking.
I am a 5 room Bed & Breakfast, aka very small business. The short of it is a 3 night reservation, on the books for months came and left making false allegations, all that I could demonstrate to be false. Yapstone not only refunded money on the abandoned reservation (she called to say she was on her way) they also refunded her deposit. When I disputed I was told very clearly I could fight but would be charged legal fees of at least $500.00 if I lost the dispute along with any additional costs . Small business has no advocate. Credit card processors will always decide choose the person paying the bill! Despite all my evidence I lost over $600. It may not be much but for a very small seasonal business it hurts. I am in the process of ending my relationship with yapstone. It was an unfair decision but as will all things in our world the litttle guy looses!
Anyone wanting to join in a class action lawsuit against Yapstone, please contact me – this company needs to be stopped!!! I have read through all of the reviews posted on this website for Yapstone. My complaints of my experiences mirror those of previous negative reviews. This is obviously a fraudulent company who makes their profit through the chargeback process. They love to make the vacation rental owner responsible for chargebacks resulting from “fraudulent credit card use” -they are the ones who are responsible for verifying the credit cards used. Any
Yes, A class action law suit would be the right action to take. We need options to process CC and not depend on VRBO or Homeaway on the company or organization they have chosen. I am not allowed the option to remove American Express. I am forced to take it because that is the system Yapstone has set up
I was useing Yapstone for the rent payments on HomeAway UK and, yes, absolutely agree that there is a big issue with the way of how they treat the hosts in case of the Chargeback. The customer services are simply not helping, even there is a clear NO FEE Chargeback case and guest’s actions were unreasonable. Terrible, not egulated services!!!!
The latest from HomeAway/VRBO is a new contract agreeing to accept YapStone and terms or your relationship with HomeAway/VRBO will end. HomeAway’s clients will have to end their relationship and probably not receive any money from the yearly fee paid to VRBO/HomeAway. The response must be made by July 15, 2017, or it is assume all conditions are acceptable. I am opting out. This I believe is a result of Expedia purchasing all of the vacation rental sights.
Yes!!! There absolutely needs to be a class action lawsuit against Yapstone. I am currently waiting back to hear about another chargeback, in the amount of $2200. I had a picture of the lady’s ID, credit card, and of course rental agreement. I had all that because of previous experiences with chargebacks occurring with last minute instant bookings. I’ve lost close to $15,000 in chargebacks, I really can’t believe I’ve been a victim so many times. I definitely think there needs to be a class action lawsuit, Yapstone is extremely unprofessional in the way they handle payments.
Hi Tiffany,
Have you heard any feedbacks yet, I am undergoing a similar situation.
Br
Li
I’m in. 925-383-0227
I’m in, let me know what needs to be done here is my contact. [email protected]
They are stealing 3,000 dollars from me requiring I send them my lease to rent my apt. on VRBO. They have been collecting fees from me and sending payments for over 3 years. They were transferring the money and decided to stop mid stream because I called and questioned them about the fees. I will join any class action and I’m currently getting them into serious trouble with VRBO senior level executives. Reach out to me if you need help in bringing them down. They do not know the laws pertaining to short term rentals with the various states and have sub par people working for them in customer service and compliance dept. This is only the short story
I want to join the class action ASAP. call 917-204-1497. They have stolen 3K from me and reported the income to the IRS along with reporting another 400 in which the reservation was canceled. They are Cleary committing fraud.
hello All ,
I am a home owner have 3 properties posted with Vrbo (home away) That’s my third chargeback I am fighting with yapstone and my review would exactly look as most frustrated home owners experienced with that crappy company.
Please whoever wants to join a law suit or any action against yapstone please let me know .
VRBO should address the issue instead of ignoring our complaints.
here is my number : +1416 898 9334
email : [email protected]
Eddy
I have never been more dissatisfied in a very long time. This is a company who has lost the pulse to meet the needs of its consumers. Why Home Away or VRBO would continue to provide the only choice such as Vacation Rent Payment, Yapstone Inc is confusing. I have spent the last two days on the phone with VRP Yapstone inc as to why they unilaterally took money from my account and payed american express after the guest stayed a glorious 5 days on the beautiful island of Kauai? On average wait time for Vacation Rental payment is over 40 min. And when you do get someone they cannot resolve the issues. No wonder I have had to spend the time researching for someone to hear this concern.
This place is a joke. If you ever have a charge back you will enter a living hell of trying to get your money back. It is a smoke and mirrors. You can never actually talk to someone in this department. I have spent over two months attempting to get my money back from them for a guest that has stayed at my property multiple times and just didn’t understand that VRBO and Homeaway are the same thing. We provided Vacation Rent payment with the bank cancellation of the charge back with in a few days and still two months later no refund. I have not rented my property out since this incident waiting to resolve it so I can switch my credit card payment to another method. STAY AS FAR FROM THEM AS POSSIBLE!!!!!!!!
I agree with all the above negative reviews on HolidayRentPayment, a Yapstone company. I have such a bad and unsafe experience with this company that I decided not to rent my home via HomeAway as long as the financial part is not well and in a safe and trustful way organised.
I have started using Homeaway for my rental properties from 01 October 2016. We received our first reservation 08 october 2016 for check-in 10 October for a large reservation. The payer was not the same of the guest who stayed. Consequently the payer exercised a chargeback, The following are the details after I received the charge back query from HolidayRentpayments part of Yapstone. I questioned
a) Why was the card not subjected to secure code?
verified by Visa / Mastercard Secure Code. The answer was, this is not initiated by Yapstone . However their website shows otherwise
copy of their website:
INDUSTRY-LEADING FRAUD DETERRENCE AND DETECTION
We leverage sophisticated internal monitoring tools and algorithms in
collaboration with industry-leading 3rd party fraud prevention software
to protect our partners from fraud. In addition, the fraud experts on
our Trust and Safety team vigilantly monitor system-wide activity to
mitigate risks and gain valuable insight in user behavior or payments
industry trends.
BANK-LEVEL ENCRYPTION
YapStone encrypts credit card and debit card data in its systems and
from end to end when processing payments. We rigorously monitor and
manage access to transactional data. Our security experts regularly
perform both internal and external reviews of our online payment
processing platform to ensure we continue to meet the highest security
standards set forth by the industry.
This means, the system is supposed to be there but not! it is a sales gimmick in my opinion and large company like this must not allow a system operate without 3d secure check
Anybody uses anybodys card and they can all plan to con the seller afterwards denying ever ordering the goods or services. 3d secure pin will stop all that..
I am looking for other sellers suffered like this so we can get this company to get its act together
I also own a property that I rent through Homeaway. Yapstone now take our payments as it is the preferred option by Homeaway. The customer service provided by this company is beyond poor. No form of communication by them other than to let you know how much they have charged you for the privilege of handling the bookings. I have just had to chase for a week to find out why a payment was being held. I now have the money in our account but no plausible explanation for the delay. I have asked for a complaint to be raised and have still to be contacted by a manager 9 working days later. Poor.
I am the owner of a vacation property and I have rented my apartment through Ownersdirect/Homeaway. Payments are managed through Yapstone, a fancy name for a company that has withholds the rents earned for 30 days for no apparent reason other than “security check” on owners (security check on owners???).
The more plausible reality is that this company is one of the many that are run and owned by blatantly dishonest financiers. The reality is that it banks on interests earned by money that does not belong to it.
Just stay away from Yapstone.
Very poor customer care. If they do not want to assist you with a need, they will just hang up on you. They are scripted with their responses to you for issues that are time sensitive. No thinking outside of their box … Serious need for retraining as to who they are really working for.
Beware of this company. Nobody is ever available to help. They will also not assist you no matter how many time you email or call. Every time we have a customer chargeback we provide all the documents required for compliance when defending a chargeback. But, it does not matter, you lose every time and Yapstone keeps their fees. This is a crooked company.
I cannot say that I have ever had such a negative experience in my life as that with Yapstone acting under the banner of HolidayRentPayment for HomeAway. I had been a loyal customer of HomeAway registering a property for 8 years. Last year, as they apparently which to raise their valuation they started forcing their owners to use their HomeAway online site. HomeAway placed warning signs to prospective renters that they cannot guarantee payment will work unless using HomeAway online payment system (so they can charge a percentage) powered by Yapstone. I tried opening an account and provided PDF of Royal Bank of Canada statements proving bank account, my Canadian passport, proof of rental property, and Ontario Hydro utility bill. As the bill is in the name of my partner, I had him signed along with three witnesses that I am resident at the address of the utility bill. Yapstone refused stating I needed to pay a lawyer to notarise it. This means Yapstone believes that the Royal Bank of Canada, the people who signed it, as well as myself, a customer with Home Away for 8 years are all liars and cannot be believe. All they are doing is transferring funds to an authorised bank account. Totally over the top in terms of requirements. They need to review how they do business. So does Home Away – I have closed my accounts with them as they are totally indifferent to the issue. Renters should use AirBnB or Trip Advisor instead.
Beware! Second time in 3 years!! This company takes payments from renters on VRBO and does not disburse monies. No reason or warning. I have been on phone to company since August, 75 days and still no resolve, no follow up and no deposits! Word is always ‘ resolving shortly’. Keep track of all money expected because they will short you and not do deposits and no word as to why? Now over $10,000 owed and no response!!
You power the payments of HolidayRentals on behalf of HomeAway.
Guests can use fraudulent cards to make payments and they go undetected by Yapstone. I was a victim of such case, where there was a chargeback and Yapstone took the payment (for which I was charged a processing fee) but no responsibility from their part and I was expected to pay back.
They hide behind terms & conditions that wave them from all responsibility.
Bottom line: don’t trust a company that used Yapstone to process payments on your behalf.
Yapstone are crooks to say the least! We accepted a booking from VRBO in which case the payment was processed by Yapstone and confirmed. Few days after the guest left, we received a dispute claim as apparently it was a fraud creditcard. Yapstone does not provide any information about the credit card of the person so we have no way to know what credit card they used or who it belongs to. After submitting the documents we received the following email telling me to choose. :
”
1. ___I do not wish to contest this dispute.
2. ___I am requesting Pre-Arbitration ONLY. If the Card-Issuing Bank does not accept and files a Direct Arbitration case with Visa, I instruct you to withdraw. I understand my account will be debited for the disputed amount and the Filing fee of €270.00.
___I am requesting that Visa review the case in the event that the Card Issuer raises a Direct Arbitration. I understand I will be responsible for the dispute amount along with the filing (€270) and ruling (€270) fees assessed by Visa if the case is found in favor of the cardholder, as well as any technical fees Visa assesses at the time of the ruling.
I fully understand that my attached rebuttal will be supplied to the issuer and may result in this case being submitted to Visa for Arbitration. I further understand that I will be responsible for the €540.00 fee (€270 Filing fee and €270.00 review fee) per case if this case is ruled against me. In addition to the filing fee and review fee, all fees and /or fines are solely determined by Visa. Yapstone cannot guarantee the outcome of any pre-arbitration or arbitration ruling.
”
Asking a non refundable payment to dispute a payment they processed in the first place is just BAD BUSINESS. I am disgusted by the way they do business. Absolutely no regard to their customer and all about milking their customer in every way without taking any of the liability. DO NOT TRUST YAPSTONE OR VRBO. They are the most terrible business
I am a property owner and have one holiday rental. Needless to say, I am not a large company where I have a float in my bank account. I am new to holiday rentals and had a ‘chargeback’ or fraud perpetrated against me whereby the person who rented used a fraudulently obtained credit card number to reserve and stay at my rental. Yapstone, without warning withdrew the $880.00 CAD from my account. They tell me that I was warned, well I was warned the same day the withdrawal was made, and did not have enough time to make sure the funds were in the account. Needless to say, their withdrawal was NSF and I was charged $50 NSF fee from my bank. As mentioned above, I only have one rental and what I make from the rental is used for upkeep etc. I needed time to acquire the funds to pay Yapstone the $880.00. I have asked them if I could pay back the chargeback when I get further bookings which they responded that I could. This is where the confusion begins. I have received bookings and even email to remind Yapstone that they should retain the amount of this booking to place towards my outstanding $880.00. What did they do?? They deposited into my account. I received another booking and AGAIN I emailed them to remind them to retain the amount to put towards my outstanding $880.00. I did not receive a response nor did I have a deposit, so I am not sure what they did with this amount. I received another booking and again reminded them to retain the amount to put towards the remainder of my outstanding balance to them (and also advised them that this should satisfy my debt in full). What did they do?? They deposited this into my account. I know, if you have read through my complaint, you are probably confused too, well I am totally confused now. I am trying to pay them back, but they continue sending me funds??????!!! It is as though their customer service doesn’t speak to their accounting department.
VRBO rented my condo in February, 2016. Since that was my first rental I have called VRBO to ask them what to do next. They said the guest has paid through credit card, all look valid. So I called the guest and told him that he has to show his ID to concierge to pick-up the key. So the guest did not show up, so I called VRBO, telling them that guest is no show and he did not cancel, they said everything looks at their end and the guest might any day. So I had travel. After 1 month in March Yapstone deposited about $2608 to my bank account, on April 8th, Yapston has withdrawn $3,261 from my bank account. There was no email or any communication, I found out when checking my bank statement. When I called VRBO I was told it was a chargeback due to a fraudulent credit card. I said the charge back should be exactly the same amount and they have taken $450 more. So later I found out, VRBO and Yapston they still charge the Owner of the property for the commission and processing fee, even if it was fraudulent. So they are running a risk free business, they process anybody’s credit card, even it later becomes a fraudulent transaction, they will force the Owner/landlord to pay for their commission. So VRBO and YAPSTONE can process as many fraudulent booking to later charge the landlord. As far as I am concerned this looks like an inside job, someone trying to make commission by using a fraudulent credit card. How can a business make a commission if the sale did not happen. The other thing to point why is the owner of the vacation liable when the credit card was processed by YAPSTONE. Owner will lose either way, by having the place rented for free, cost associated with cleaning and damage and top of that still pay VRBO and Yapston for a failed fraudulent transaction. This a scam. Beware.
Not one but THREE fraudulent transactions with VRBO and Homeaway. This stuff never happens with my account with Airbnb & Tripadvisor.
It finally dawned on my after the last fraudulent transaction of $4000 with another $1000 in property damage (the other two fraudulent transactions were minor) that I should have picked up on the fact that these guys are not doing GUEST VERIFICATION checks. At least PayPal notifies you if they can’t do a proper identity verification. Yapstone nothing. Don’t do business with them or you might learn the hard way like I did?
This is the worst and unrealiable company to work with be carefull you wont receive your money ! I had a guest checked in, name was checked at arrival with passport. The name was the same as the renter whoms card was charged. They stayed. Holidayrent payment paid me the outstanding balance which is normal, Later they sent me an email that the card seemed to be stolen???!! Therfor they deducted without notice or any communication the rent of my next booking. They dont show any evidence and cancel payouts till the next booking. The guest who paid the booking was indeed the true person in live ! Holidayrentpayment doesnt prove anything to the landlord they are in severe default. I blocked my accounts on VRBO and Homeaway I dont want to work with this unreliable scammers anymore. Further on I will post a FB page to warn people against this organisation. DONT RELY YOU WILL LOOSE YOUR RENTAL INCOME.
One of my guests paid by eCheck…he made 1 payment. He entered numbers incorrectly and now I have been charged not 1 $25 fee but 2…$50 for that error. I cannot get a supervisor to answer the phone after the representatives answer to tell me, pretty much, that that’s the way it goes. I have also emailed them but I know I will get the same response or no response…it’s been 4 days since I emailed them. I would like resolution or suggestions from anyone who knows how to resolve this unfair, seemingly illegal, process. Thank you.
Yesterday, I received a bizarre 1099 from 2014! And, another 1099 for 2015. There is no way I received any where near this amount of money, and Yapstone says there is not a person to talk to. You must write them a letter. I even added in all the credit card processing fees. Even this did not help come up with what they say I received. Credit card processing fees are income to someone, but not me. Who knows how they came up with nearly $200,000. And, sending out a 1099 in 2016 for 2014 income? What am I supposed to do with that bizarre amount? I’m getting ready to file a complaint with the BBB.
Yapstone
This company asks for an unreasonable amount of info to set up payments for VRBO and home away. They ask for paperwork that cannot be produced bank statements with EIN on statement,, tax ID numbers, parts of tax returns EIN numbers. We opted out after they asked for a 40 page 1040 form from tax return (we had provided first page) Web search of “yapstone complaints ” reveals multiple security breaches of VRBO and Homeaway customers and pending lawsuits
Beware
They force you to use payment system or lose ranking . We have signed up for stripe & authorize payment systems and have never had to provide this amount of info. We haven’t had security breach … Yapstone has had many breached and many lawsuits. Be cautious.
Someone should build a service that works like VRBO worked before Expedia bought them.
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I contracted with Homeaway ” book it ” in 2014. Yapstone is the payment processing company that Homeaway presently uses for this service., The payments for my rentals all came in on time except for one. I did have to follow up with ” yapstone” in order to get that missed one paid out to me. I did receive that payment but they were difficult to reach and it was time consuming. It also made me wary of them.
I did stop using them, though, after I had a guest dispute. The dispute was a bogus attempt to get a freeby so I sent Yapstone all my paperwork immediately to counter the dispute. Yapstone made an error with my paperwork and they didn’t get the paperwork over to the bank for over a month. They told me that all was fine in the end and that the bank had refunded them the money pending the final outcome of the dispute. They also informed me that they would be keeping that money pending review rather than submitting it back to me, ( the common practice is that the payment processing companies refund dispute money back to the merchant pending dispute review).
Yapstone then informed me that I had to pay $250 upfront to them if I wanted to complete the dispute. I pointed out that the contract said $25 ( not $250 fees) for any dispute, They blamed the bank and gave me the option to pay $500 to them, only if I lost the dispute. Since the guest complaint was clearly inappropriate and bogus I told Yapstone to follow up with the dispute and I sent them further documentation to back up my counter claim. I was told that the process would complete by Oct 8th, 2015.
It is now January 15th, 2016 and so far I have heard nothing further from them. My last communication had been August 8th, 2015. I have again contacted them and they claim they have to research to find out why the process never completed and why they never followed up with any contact to me.
Apparently Yapstone is affiliated with Chase Bank ( Yapstone gave me this info). Furthermore The credit card used by the disputing client was a Chase bank credit card ( Yapstone gave me this info also) Therefore it would be Yapstone ( as Chase Bank) demanding I pay $250 ( or $500) in order to counter my client’s dispute and have my rental fees refunded back to me.
I no longer use Homeaway ” book it” and I have gone back to using my original payment processing company. I had been using my original company since 2006 and I had never had any issues at all with them, as well they are always easy to reach ( no message machines like Yapstone). My original processing company have informed me that they have never heard of a client being asked to pay out $250 or $500 in order to counter a dispute. The standard fee for disputes is $25, as was on my contract. It was nice to have the convenience of ” book It” but I would not go that route again if I have to go through this company to do so.
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Who do you use instead? Does that mean you no longer use Homeaway at all for booking and payments? If there is an alternative I would sure like to know. Have looked into realtors to handle all of this but haven’t had much luck there.
I am a holiday home owner so rely on regular income to pay for repairs, cleaners etc. Yapstone is used by Owners Direct and I recently signed up for their automated payments service , essentially to make my life easier. Since this has been live I have not received notification on all payments being received and also started receiving failure to collect direct debit notices. When enquiring about this, I was told to ignore the notices and this is because UK Banks dont accept the Yapstone ‘International payments’ mandate. Clearly a massive breakdown in the operational readiness of being a payments service in the UK. This then means you have to sign up with Clearsettle that do handle UK bank payments. The worst part of this story is that even though I wa ssigned up to receive credits via clear settle , Yapstone managed to block all payments into my account. I have received no satisfactory answer to date, my escalation to a manager is fruitless, which tells me as a customer that either they do not care, or they are overworked. I am currently out of pocket by over £800 and missing 7 payments with absolutely no explanation of what broke down with the process. Shocking and if it had been me not paying them I imagine there would be very swift proceeding against me as a very small buisness owner. Formal complaint in progress with them but I am sceptical based on service? received so far.
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Yapstone requested very sensitive information in the way of passports, licenses and tax documents in order to process payments for my VRBO account. They declined my request and would not give a reason for doing so. I asked repeatedly for a reason why and also was concerned what they did with the sensitive documents I emailed to the company.
I’ve been running a thriving rental operation thanks to Airbnb. I’m a five star host and have a 100% approval rating.
If you don’t have to deal with Yapstone……I wouldn’t.
Mixed opinions re: Holiday Rent Payments (we’re based i the UK and have the European version).
Good points are…
1. No real issues in regard to receiving payments when guests have booked. The money is usually within the account within 5-7 days. That’s very useful.
2. I cannot argue that it is the best way to encourage guests to book and pay through the homeaway platform.
Bad things…
1. There were two or three occasions when they took a security deposit twice! Luckily we noticed (we have 50+ properties), but to be fair they were fairly quick at sorting it out when we did notice.
2. Most importantly, they do not support basic fraud prevention technologies like Verified By Visa. This leave the vendor very much exposed to credit and debit card fraud. If a chargeback is raised by the original card holder, they give you very little time to construct a defense (we were given less than 24 hours one occasion), and they seem to have absolutely no interest in properly representing the vendor in the case of a chargeback, whether it was genuine fraud or a mistake. I don’t understand why they don’t do more to protect vendors from this type of fraud. To compare, AirBnB have much more sophisticated anti-fraud tools, and can usually spot problematic bookings within 24 hours.
Conclusion – When things run smoothly they offer a good service, and it is the best way to encourage bookings. Make sure your accounting systems are tight so that you can spot potential problems like them not paying you or double charging you. By using them you are exposed to credit card fraud and chargebacks, which they will do very little to help you with, so beware. Make sure your guests are who they say they are, otherwise you WILL get stung sooner or later.
This is exactly what happened to me! Guy brought 10 dogs into my home. I asked him to leave. He made a chargeback. I had photos of the dogs and a signed NO PETS contract. He also brought 9 people. 3 over the limit. He was refunded his money because I didn’t let him stay! Found out he had to repay the government over $150,000 in fake Medicare charges at his two eye centers prior to this! This guy should be in jail. They should not expect me to let him stay in my home with 10 dogs and 3 extra humans!
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BAD EXPERIENCE WITH YAPSTONE/ VACATION RENT PAYMENTS. I am a long time user of Vacation Rentals/ VRBO.com. VRBO offers awesome customer service yet their service breaks down with the extremely bad service of Yapstone/ Vacation Rent payment (vrbo’s payment process vendor). Vrbo is actually rolling out the integrated ability to use any 3rd party vendor for payment processing probably because of the widespread unhappiness with Vacation Rent Payment. We are stuck with Vacation Rent Payment for now but hopefully that will change.
Last night, the indifference of Vacation Rent Payment was disappointing and her inability to assist with resolving the delay in setting up new processing on a new listing horrible. Vacation Rent Payment is guilty of enjoying exclusive relationships with larger companies that seem to be at an end and clearly had no need to offer good customer service. Bottom line, if you have a choice RUN RUN RUN from this company. ( Expect to see this review posted on other sites where you will not be able to delete it as I am sure you will from your board here.)
Finally the inability to actually get through to a supervisor or someone with the ability to fix a problem is impossible and the rep last night claims her supervisor did not want to get on the line.
Never completed required documents, and chose another company that had better customer services and processes. Then was billed and requested a reversal on the billed amount. Was replied with a message my account was removed…but no reversal. Was billed another month, sent e-mail and told to go to a link to cancel. The link asked for my name and e-mail and returned that we would receive instructions. Never received the instructions, and no reply to issue of being billed when my account did not complete the information requested. Still no resolution to issues.
This is a TERRIBLE company. My experience with them echoes other complaints I have now found about them. They’re hooked up with VRBO and Homeaway and they are certainly guilty by association. They’ll take your renters payment alright, but good luck getting the funds due you. They will offer up everyu excuse you could ever imagine and the best one is “they are really overloaded with requests” Go figure! People want to get paid for what’s coming to them. this practice of theirs will likely not change until a state brings suit against them. Perhaps under violation of truth in lending laws.
The company hold my guest’s payment without any notice or reason. Called customer service department many times, and no one can give me a reason, just told me they have filed a ticket already, any would contact me once they got the feedback from other department. it is a terrible company. Is there anyway I can get my money back quickly.
This company accepts payments for Homeaway, they mis represent how long it will take to get your funds. I had a guest stay in November and my funds have not been released as of December 17. I was told they hold the funds for 30 days. The real ease the funds another 7 days later. I contacted them asking what I could to expedite the payment I was told I could. Have credit check through their company. I did that then I was told that was for another program they had and my funds will not be released. Very deceptive…. If you have other choices please use another provider. Pay pal , square what ever do not use this option on homeaway or vrbo.
This company will not properly represent you if you have a client dispute charges on their credit card. I had a “guest (Tim Conrad ) check in to my rental property who agreed online at the time of booking and again upon arrival in writing that there were no pets and no more than 6 people to be on the property. Shortly after checking in, he had 9-10 dogs in my house and 9 people! I provided the contract as well as photos of the dog pooping in my yard and the extra people and Yapstone allowed his credit card company to take my funds back because we asked them to leave. I lost the income from a fourth of July rental as well as having to pay $200 to have the house cleaned since they had already been all over the beds and the house. I would like to know who would allow someone to stay in their home with 9-10 dogs and 9 people rather than the agreed upon 6.
This company will take your funds from you paying guests for a vacation rental and not release them to you for extended periods of time as in weeks. I would highly recommend not using yapstone in Walnut Creek California but using a different merchant banking service with reputable practices such as Costco credit card merchant processing or directly with a bank such as Wells Fargo or US Bank that does credit card merchant processing.
Their website provides dark-pattern. It NEVER shows how much you have to pay for the service until you waste a lot of time entering your personal information and credit card information.
At the last minute, it tells you that you have to pay over $16 dollars to make a payment.
WHY NOT PUT THAT INFORMATION RIGHT ON THE FIRST PAGE OF THE WEB SITE?
I would not recommend this site. Stay way from it.
This company is fraudulent they just stole $2625 out of my account…. Beware
Hi Patty,
Can you provide some more detail about your experience? Otherwise, this review will be deleted.