I know people on here are constantly looking for some of the best merchant accounts to use, and while we only focus on the good ones, I want to add to a list of merchant account companies to avoid.
CardService International is a very reputable company and is definitely one of the leaders in its industry. The main reason why I wanted to put them on the list of merchant account companies to avoid is their lack of customer serivce. One of their reps by the name of Josh, has harassed me for 2-3 weeks, calling me 3 times a day on my cell and home phone (never even gave my home phone on the application) in order to sign me up. I remind him several times that the easiest way to contact me was through email since I always off at work. When asked about explaining the service in detail, he was very vague and was more focus on getting me on the phone to he could set everything up. I asked him several times the difference between his processor and Costco's (for instance) and all he told he is "we're better."
Since he called me twice within 3 hours this morning, I had enough and emailed him the following letter:
Joshua,
Because of the constant harassing I get from you in the past couple weeks, I have decided to go with someone else. I told you easiest way to get a hold of me was through email, but for some reason you had to call my cell and house number, which I never even gave to you.
So please stop calling. I have a merchant who is offering better rates and is more open about discussing details before signing. Unlike you, you gave me a brief overview and constantly wanted to get a hold of me so that I could sign on to your company.
Thanks anyway and I wish you the best of luck in the future.
Chris
His response to the above email:
Hey Chris,
Thanks for the reply, I do hope the broker you signed with enjoys spending your money. When you realize that your getting hosed, feel free to contact me.. For now I am removing your info from our system to assure that no one from my company will be attempting to help you...
Respectfully,
Joshua Harjo
800-295-0819x120
The lack of professionalism is the main reason why I will not being using CardService International as my merchant account.
Ya...I'm a very laid back guy, but when this type of behavior happens for weeks, it really starts to annoy you. Even if they had the best rates in the world, I would still not use them due to the lack of customer service. I was going to report him to CSI, but couldn't find a contact without having to fill out an application
Did you forward his response to a supervisor at this place? This is certainly not something I would let go. If it was my employee, Id certainly want to know about it ASAP! The sooner I know, the sooner I can fire them!
Did you forward his response to a supervisor at this place? This is certainly not something I would let go. If it was my employee, Id certainly want to know about it ASAP! The sooner I know, the sooner I can fire them!
I totally agree.
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Who is the best merchant account company to go with? It seems that the one that I spoke with (United Payment Systems) have these ridiculous fees, $100.00 for equipment, $16.00 a month Tech support, .20 cents authorization fee, $69.00 dollars a year so your personal information doesn't get hacked and so on....... Is there a better company to use????
There are a LOT of bad seeds in this industry. You've got to be careful when signing up for any of these companies. (Note that what I'm saying applies more specifically to US companies; I don't know how much it varies out of country.)
NEVER, ever lease a terminal. (Luckily, this one is not from experience, but I've heard a lot of bad stories here; usually you end up paying $4000 for a $300 machine or something like that!)
I would suggest avoiding any company offering sign-up gimmicks to get you on board - free terminals, free computers, free gas cards, etc. If they need to offer you a gimmick to sign up, expect them to screw you later on.
Make sure you ask in detail about all the fees charged. Also make sure that everything a salesman promises you is in WRITING. Again, NEVER lease a terminal; you'll pay far, far too much for something worth only a few hundred dollars. Make sure the company you go with has no cancelation fee.
You should expect to pay somewhere between $5 and $20 a month, but you should not have annual fees on top of this. There will be transaction fees on every charge; usually something like 20 cents each transaction + 1.5-2.5% of the sale. A signup fee of $75-100 is fairly standard as well.
As far as specific companies, I'd suggest avoding any company that is a subsidiary of Merchant Services (aka MSI). I've had problems with at least 2 companies that were under Merchant Services, and I've heard of several others that have had problems as well.
Right now we're working on getting a refund on a cancelation fee our previous company (1st National Processing, a subsidiary of MSI) charged us when we quit - even though they had a note that there were no cancelation fees in the contract AND said there was none when I called them up. $250 cancelation fee, put our business account into the negatives the next check we wrote; fun! :P
You are so right about CSI....Card Services International.
here is a quote I rcvd from somebody named Chris...who finally emailed me the cost after I ignored his constant calls, on my cell and home for over 2 months!
"The Linkpoint Secure Payment Gateway can be purchased on a lease option for only $29.95 a month! The discount rate and transaction fee is 2.49% plus $.30 per transaction and there is a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) hosting and customer service fee of $30.00 per month."
Thank you for posting this, I thought he was taking advantage of me, I did not know they harass and are aggressive toward everybody!
After that email, I did not respond so I assume he gave up. At least I hope!
Merchant Account Provider to Avoid! 
