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Mercury Payment Systems still trying to screw me!

B

BackBoss

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Closed my shop a few months ago. Called and closed all accounts… and ever since then I’ve still been getting a bill from Mercury Payment Systems.

Last month they charged me an extra $280 for a yearly security fee (total BS)… and also someone decided to try and deny a charge for a delivery they received from us back in May for $30

After calling MPS and dealing with multiple idiots and finally threatening to file a lawsuit against them, I was able to get the $280 back into my account, they just told me to fax them over the signed credit card slip (which I DID). The charge was never removed from my account, nor have I heard a single thing about it… until last week. Boom, $30 removed from my bank account! I call them up to see what the hell is going on and they just give me the run around and say I was suppose to take an imprint of the card on the delivery, the signiture doesnt do ANYTHING… THEN WHY THE F DO THEY TELL YOU TO TAKE AN F’N SIGNITURE???

And THEN, yesterday there is ANOTHER charge for $15 taken out of my account! Just so happens I go out and get the mail and BOOM, they jack me with a $15 fee for the $30 charge back!
ARE YOU F’ING KIDDING ME!

Suggestions on my next course of actions?
 
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MPS bungled the security fee, but it sounds like they fixed it. The rest of that is something you’re going to deal with at any processor. It’s frustrating, but there are several threads here about folks (including myself) ranting about the “system”. We generate a ton of money for the credit card companies, but have zero leverage.
 
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I noticed the other day that PayPal was now integrating with some online shopping sites so that buyers did not have to give CC#s to sellers…I wonder if this will ever be extended to POS systems and/or online pizza ordering…
 
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The chargeback game is one that sucks. We are dealt the losing hand in the “rules” and from what I have heard from others here it is near impossible to win, my own experience bears this out. We always lose on chargebacks Yes, you are supposed to get an imprint and a signature on “card not present” sales and actually on all non-swiped sales. If you can not present an imprint you did not comply with the agreement. I have RBS Link, they charge $20.00 for a chargeback fee. I would cancel my merchant account today if my customers would accept it, but they won’t so I deal with it and hate it. Even if you win the chargeback you lose the fee. Fortunately for us we only see a couple of chargebacks a year, but we had a couple of cases where they were multiple transactions from the same customer and that really hurt. The $45.00 loss sucks, but it is probably 100% in accordance with your agreement and fighting more will only cause you more stress. For me I have gotten to the point that fighting them causes more stress than the chargeback and you lose in the end anyway so I do not fight them anymore unless it was a swiped transaction or if I have an imprint (rare), but I do take note of the customer and only accept cash from them for future orders.
 
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This.
Rick G:
For me I have gotten to the point that fighting them causes more stress than the chargeback and you lose in the end anyway so I do not fight them anymore unless it was a swiped transaction or if I have an imprint (rare), but I do take note of the customer and only accept cash from them for future orders.
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I too am with Mercury and got dinged a $165 security fee which they are refusing to give a credit for…btw last year the fee was $150 which I was told was a one time only fee relating to PCI compliance…
WHATEVER!

The time has now come that I will be switching processors. However, I am a Point of Success user and love the integration of Mercury processing with the software. My question is: does anyone use Point of Success and have integrated processing, utilizing PC Charge, through another processor other than Mercury? If so, how difficult is it to set up and what costs are associated to do so?
 
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Its been a few years since i was in a shop. However, you have to buy the connector module from point of success. Then you have to acquire PC Charge Payment server, most likely from your new processing company. I hear its not cheap though if you have to buy it.

I just set up the Auto Settle program that came with PC Charge, so it settled on its own every night. Otherwise, I dont think its that much different than mercury, although i’ve never actually used integrated through mercury. You just have another piece of software you have to maintain.
 
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If, as you say, you closed your shop a few months ago, WHY didn’t you close the bank account? You should close it immediately and open a new one for you personal and/or new business use.

Seriously, you should have closed the bank account the day you closed the shop. Or at least the day after the last cc deposit was made.
 
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PizzaBrewer:
Seriously, you should have closed the bank account the day you closed the shop. Or at least the day after the last cc deposit was made.
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This. Absolutely.

You next move?

Close that account before someone else submits a chargeback.
 
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Unfortunately, if you close the account in question you can look forward to bills in the mail for anything they would want to debit that account for - with the usual escalating threats included with those bills. Good luck…
 
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My accountant told me not to close the account so that I can continue using it for tax payments until the end of the quarter (which the last check will be going out in a few days). Otherwise I would have closed it long ago.

I was reading another forum where people DID close their bank account, and MPS could not get their money for their fee or charge back, so instead, MPS got collections after them and eventually got it put on their credit.

I also use Point Of Success, which is why I was dealing with MPS… I have no problem with POS, they are a great company and I love their software, but MPS is total BS. I dont want to have to deal with PC Charge either, I used them long ago and their yearly fee for help is outrageous, plus the added expense of getting the thing to connect it to POS… forget about it. I’m going back to Heartland and using a regular swipe machine, hell I’ll have my drivers take photos of the people’s credit card when they deliver so I have proof.

I already told MPS that I will not be using them again for my 3 upcoming shops, plus letting all the other people in my area along with coming onto as many forums like this as I can find and telling my horror story about them. Yeah they dont give a rats-a$$
 
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Still not sure I understand how getting a charge back is screwing you. Every "problem you mentioned above you will have with every of processor.

Taking a picture of the credit card won’t help you with a chargeback. If you really want to prevent chargebacks, read your merchant agreement and follow it like you are supposed to do. You will quickly see that following it to prevent chargebacks is not worth the time or the effort.
 
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At my previous business, back in the mid '90s, I used to have my credit card customers sign an agreement stating that there would be no refunds. A few customers tried, but everytime the merchant company sided with us because of our policy.

Which leads me to ponder, what if one could have a disclaimer printed on the credit card receipt stating that there will be no refunds, only replacement of “defective goods”? If you have a no refund policy, and the card holder agrees to it by signing the receipt, why wouldn’t the merchant company respect that?

It’s been a while since I’ve had a merchant account, so feel free to tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about…I can take it.
 
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RG, I’ve actually had a few charge-backs over the years when I was with Global and with Heartland… both companies were pretty much on our side and disputed the customers fraud charges. I never paid once for ANY charge-back nor incurred any fees.
Now with MPS on the other hand, they give me an attitude when I call them and blame me for not using their imprinters… I even received an e-mail from them yesterday stating that “it’s just a part of doing business”.
Really? It’s a part of doing business? It may be part of Mercury Payment Systems way of doing business, but it is certainly not mine. I with I could just give customers the finger and take their money without giving them anything… then send them another bill a week later for $15 for the hassle I had to endure when taking their money.
That would be awesome! 8)

Looks like I’ll be going back to Heartland in a couple of months when I open up the other shops, whether or not I’ll use PC Charge to integrate it into POS, i’m not sure. May just stick with the single dial-up terminal. Simple, straight forward, and cheap.
 
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