I want to warn other artists about Transfirst Merchant processing company based on my own experience.
Following is the letter I sent to them to dispute the charges they had made. This morning I received a call telling me that they would refund the incorrectly debited monthly fees, but not the $295 early termination fee that they charged, though I had never agreed to a 3-year contract.
TransFirst LLC
3131 S. Vaughn Way #350
Aurora, Colorado 80014
Fax: 303.482.8096
Dear Sir or Madam,
I have had a seasonal merchant account with TransFirst since October 2008. Unfortunately, your firm has been debiting a monthly fee instead of the twice-annual seasonal fee I had agreed to. This incorrect debiting has resulted in numerous overdraft charges on my bank account, which I have paid. I brought the errors to the attention of one of your representatives by telephone and she refunded the incorrectly charged amounts. I discussed cancelling my account at that time. Nancy Nguyen emailed me a closure form that included an early termination fee. I questioned that, and she claimed I had a three-year contract. I told her I did not recall committing to a time period of any kind, and would not have done so, so she faxed me my application paperwork on file in your office.
When I received the paperwork, I noted that there was a discrepancy between what she faxed me and the original application that I signed. The final four pages (Merchant Card Processing Agreement) were not included with the papers that I signed. If you examine the paperwork, you will see that the final four pages do not have the fax headers found on the previous pages nor do they carry my signature or initials. I sent another email to Ms. Nguyen with this information and the statement that I was therefore not bound by the Agreement or the early termination fee. She replied “not a problem.” (See attached email string).
After this, I was charged incorrectly again for the months of June and July. I decided to use the account for an art fair on August 15, and then cancelled the account because of the repeated errors in fees charged. I faxed the closure form to your office, and also sent an email on 8/24/09 to Nancy Nguyen letting her know of my account cancellation and requesting reimbursement of the two months’ fees that had been incorrectly debited. I watched my bank account for the reimbursement, and was stunned to instead see a debit from your company for $295 on 9/4/09 and another for $56.35 on 9/10/09. I had the assurance in that email from Nancy that I was not bound by the early termination fee aspect of the application if I cancelled my account, and had crossed out the fee on the closure form before I signed and faxed it.
Therefore I am claiming reimbursement of the $126.28 in incorrectly charged monthly fees and the $295 in incorrectly charged early termination fees. Please send me a check for $421.28 at the address below. I have closed my bank account to insure there will be no further charges by your company.
Anyone have any ideas how I can get them to reimburse me? $295 was most of my bank account at the time. I'm sure legal fees would be far more than they owe me.
I realize I'll probably never win against a large company like this, but I hope I can help someone else from having a similar experience. By the way, my bank referred me to them . . .
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I started another post earlier regardning choosing a credit card company, but can't find it, so I'll report my experience here. I did end up giving Bancard a try, thanks to all the help Marcelo (previous poster) gave me. He adn his techie Kat have spent a lot of time talking me through their systems. The rates seem good, I went with the Store-and-Forward option, and so far it all looks good. First show in Philly on the 15th, so I'll know more after that, but so far I highly recommend Bancard.
Marcelo Perez said:
Our company is working very hard to try to stop this annual fee for PCI Compliance. If we are able to do this we will only charge $19.95 a month if the PCI verification is not done. If anyone is interested in processing with us, please visit our website www.bancardpayment.com or call us at 972-783-7200.
Our company is working very hard to try to stop this annual fee for PCI Compliance. If we are able to do this we will only charge $19.95 a month if the PCI verification is not done. If anyone is interested in processing with us, please visit our website www.bancardpayment.com or call us at 972-783-7200.
Definitely! This is how I was able to get my money back, because it was obvious that the pages stating I had a 3-year contract were not faxed from me or part of the original agreement they had sent me.
Michael Skeen said:
Always initial every page of an agreement. That way you have a way to demonstrate that a later inserted page wasn't there. I generally number pages p1 of 10 then my initials.
Always initial every page of an agreement. That way you have a way to demonstrate that a later inserted page wasn't there. I generally number pages p1 of 10 then my initials.
I am not sure, maybe some processors are cashing in on this part of it. If they are a large processing bank, sometimes the people down the chain don't know whats going on. They are sometimes just passed the information and they have to give the info to the merchants. We are as honest as it gets. The thing about us, no queues, no hold times, you can get me on my office phone or my cell phone.
Sigh.... even more confusing. Why does your number, a yearly number, differ so greatly from the 1st National number, which was monthly. I heard that was the company to trust, but now your information is completely different. I don't mean to be a whiner.... is the link you sent me to your company?
Yes Kevan I am in the industry, this fee will not be implemented until June 2010 if it happens, we are still trying to fight this fee with our bank. All merchants have to understand that there still will be a $19.95 charge if they do not follow the instruction to become PCI Compliant. Please look us up on the BBB. www.bancardpayment.com, you will not find us on any of the negative websites, like ripoff.com, my3cents, etc.. etc.. If you are currently processing please fax over your statements to 972-783-0101. I came across this website because i was doing some research for one of my merchants that this Trans First company was trying to take from us, but our merchants are very loyal, so they wanted me check them out.
Are you in the industry? Or are you an artist? If with the industry, which company? I could live with $99 a year, but the guy from 1st National this morning said it could be $50-100 monthly, or higher....
Replies
Marcelo Perez said:
Thank you,
Marcelo Perez
Michael Skeen said:
Give me a call if you would like to talk about this 972-783-7200 office, cell 214-477-5623.
Thank you,
Thank you,
Marcelo Perez
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