Merchant One
Reviews and Complaints

As the Merchant One Payment claims to offer best merchant solutions, in reality the picture is completely different. They are liars. I have been a fool to have invested so much for the solutions. Infact the complete features and facilities as pointed on the websites are completely fake and inappropriate

If you are signing a contract with Merchant One Payments please ensure that you understand the terms of the contract and read through all the fine print as well.
I was made to pay a heft cancellation fee when I wanted to cancel my contract

Jag
Although their website states that they don't lock you into long-term contracts (whatever that means), they don't mention anything about a termination fee. Another vendor offered us a better deal and we initiated the contract termination process; that is when we were informed that we need to pay a cancellation fee. This of course is unfair; ideally they should have mentioned this point in the original contract! Merchant One hurts camouflages information about contract registration, termination, and extra costs. To top it all the ecommerce platforms are not completely error free. The customer support staff is not very receptive.

Navier
Merchant One offers one of the worst online payment processing services. The system is not good at handling huge traffic. I am losing lots of revenue due to this. Planning to hire a different agency.

In my experience I would have to say that this is the worst company in the world. There customer support is terrible and it seems like no one there even knows what they are doing. Cancel 2 weeks after signing (which was almost impossible to do by the way).

I was immediately contacted after my account was approved and trained on my terminal. Their suppost is the best I have ever found in my 10 years of taking credit cards

I signed up with MerchantOne and yes, they are a bad, bad company. Firstly the sales [censored]bag went on and on about how much money I'll save with them... Total ###. Of course he made NO mention of any "early termination fee" etc. Anyway, I get my first statement and there's a page of miscellaneous fees. I've only been with them a few months but I can already see it's costing $20+ a month more than what PayPal Web Payments Pro was costing me. That's BEFORE the $124 PCI compliance scanning, or the $30/month non-compliance fee if I choose not to move my entire website to a new semi-dedicated web hosting plan in order to pass the PCI scanning. Don't expect these ### ###s to disclose any of this up front

Long story short... HUGE HUGE mistake switching to merchant one. HUGE MISTAKE! Now I get their "termination letter" telling me that closing my account will cost me $25/per month for the remainder of the "term" or $295; whichever is greater. WTF are they talking about? What term? Since when do bank accounts have term contracts. I've got half a mind to fly to FL and bring a reign of terror down on these thieves.

This saga continues. After speaking with "Nancy" from Merchant One and receiving no satisfaction, I was putting this into the hands of the Board of Directors to decide a course of action. Yesterday - again UNAUTHORIZED - Merchant One debited our bank account for the $295 that Nancy had mentioned. We now are forced to close this checking account so that they don't have any further access. This is a dispicable group of people who lie, cheat and now steal! Stay away from them!

To all who wish to deal with Merchant One: You bet they're tricky so be very careful. But the same advice I give you concerning them follows for any merchant account vendor your considering. You must read the fine print in your application document. If you do you'll be made aware of what these folks didn't know.

Note that with this merchant account vendor as well as others when you sign your application with them you are also agreeing to the terms and conditions of their "Program Guide". Hence, you are effectively agreeing to the terms and conditions of at least TWO documents you must carefully read. Always, always request a copy of the Program Guide! It is not the same document as your application, however, your application will clearly state that the Program Guide becomes part of your application once you sign on the dotted line. You need to be aware of this.

My advice is to do the following:
1. Request a .pdf copy of your application via email. Be sure to read the application in it's entirety. If you have any questions about any of the fees...ask and get something in writing via email.

2. In your .pdf copy of the Merchant One application, note section 10, "Signatures". Read this section in it's entirety. This section states the following: "Client certifies that all information set forth in this completed Merchant Processing Application is true and correct and that Client has received a copy of the Program Guide (Version MER1208) and Confirmation Page, which is part of this Merchant Processing Application (consisting of Sections 1-10), and by this reference incorporated herein."

This section means that when you sign your application you're also signing the Program Guide. Note that your version of the Program Guide might be different than the one above depending on when you read this but at the time of this writing BOTH documents will apply to your agreement with this or other vendors! Get a copy and read it in full. You'll want to pay special attention to the sections dealing with termination (usually somewhere close to the end).

3. It might be possible to get Merchant One to waive the three year agreement and termination fee but you'll have to negotiate with them to place such wording into the "Special Instructions" section of your application. DON'T STOP HERE. Now, get an email or written document from a representative of Merchant One specifically stating that the wording in the Special Instructions section of the application SUPERCEDES section 34.3 (at the time of this writing) of the Program Guide, or whichever section the termination agreement specifics are lined out in your version of the Program Guide. Print this email or save the document and stick it in a file folder somewhere. Don't save it to your machine, print it.

4. Even with all of this (and you must get ALL of #3 BEFORE YOU SIGN) you might still have a problem if you terminate your agreement with Merchant One. You should win in the end, however, be aware that a fight will most likely ensue and you may have to enlist the services of an attorney to get your money back or to get your credit report cleared if your account goes to collection.

I had the same problem and they also will not waive the exorbitant cancellation fee even though I never used the account. They also never sent me the copy of the contract that I was supposed to get after I signed it. So, the "program guide" was only available to me when I signed the application. With their fees, it's actually cheaper for me to keep the account open for 3 years than to cancel it at $25 a month for the remainder of the contract.

I agree. We have the same problem here. Business owners stay away! Theft, dishonest,
Fraud. Merchantone will rip you off! Trust me. Stay away

If you are a reatiler stay away from Merchant One for sevicing your credit card sales. We closed our account yet they continued to charge our bank account for fees. They would not refund nor would they pro-rate any of these fees! Once our account was closed we returned all of their equipment (at our expense) but we received daily emails telling us if the equipment was not in their hands they would charge us for it! They are only out to take you money.

I was t0ld when I signed up that they would provide technical support to help me use their service online. There was no support and I was not able to make their service work. That was three years ago. I have not used there service once, not ever. After paying hundreds of dollars in fees, which continue to escalate, all these years and watching new fees constantly being added, I stopped paying. Now they claim I owe them almost $500. Again, with no service ever provided.

merchant one has been an extremely bad experience for me..hidden charges, canclelation fees, etc...once you get them in your bank account you cannot get them out unless you pay a 295.00 fee or 25 dollars a month until you reach 36 months (which ever is greater) and if you decide just not to use their card, its a 25.00 a month mininum fee in ADDITION to a monthly fee

When this service was ordered, I was given a 30 day free trial. This account was
never used and I was told that I would be charged $ 295. 00 to cancel. Not only
did I not use this service, I was billed for the first 30 days when it was provided
free.

I put in a card payment online with Paul Milburn Acreages...this transaction showed declined several times so I notified the company via email over the holiday. Since it has been a fiasco as one company states that I am the one putting the hold on my account...ummm how is that? Merchant One has the credit card services for that website and all I get from Milburns office is that they cannot do anything that they never recieved anything although My BANK WELLS FARGO...has in my account a hold on the payment and it is held by MERCHANT ONE...AT SOME POINT THEY ACCEPTED MY PAYMENT AND HAVE A HOLD ON THIS PAYMENT WHICH IS THE ISSUE...each entity is telling me neither is at fault yet they are still holding my money and account up. This has been going back and forth since monday...Milburns office speaking with my bank and then merchant one and it has gotten NOWHERE. So I contacted MERCHANT ONE myself as Milburn's office wants Merchant ONE to speak to my bank...well problem there is no info can be obtained or discussed without me being there...so why have them call my bank if they cannot get any information? Milburn's office has not been the nicest in this instance either as they act as though I am not being truthful with them even though they have a copy of the hold on my bank account sent to them by my bank WELLS FARGO. Speaking with Merchant One today due to not being able to get anywhere with Milburn's office and it is just like all the complaints I read online this morning about MERCHANT ONE...sad that a business with such potential has such horrible customer service and excuses. 179 complaints in 6 months! WOW!

Very disappointed and disgusted with both entities at this point!

Pretty much similar results for me. I'm seeking legal council and possibly a class action suit can be filed. rftj@netzero.net for those that want to participate or a lawyer that may represent us.

Merchant One should be dismantled and its owners thrown in jail. They made many unauthorized transactions against my account, told me I was under a 3 year contract (I wasn't) and that I would be charged nearly 1 K in cancellation fees if I wanted to cancel my account. It was only after I told one of its representatives, Ross Polonetsky, that I was reporting them to the FTC that they refunded some of the unauthorized transactions. He also told me my account would be cancelled without charge (after I exposed the lies and unauthorized transactions) but I continue to receive invoices from them. I have asked repeatedly for them to stop doing this but until now, they haven't. So I finally changed my bank account info. to avoid further withdrawals. I have never witnessed such thievery from a company in my entire life, may God touch them profoundly in their consciences for stealing from small business owners.

I agree with every complaint about Merchant One on this page. They are very dishonest and deceptive. I am complaining to the federal trade commission at www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov and suggest that all their victims should do the same. I t is very important to get these guys exposed so they don't deceive new people.

Merchant One does not disclose all terms and conditions. My "No Contracts/ No Obligations" resulted in non-disclosed early termination fees when I canceled account. I am currently working with an attorney on this matter. Stay away from Merchant One.

I agree, could anyone tell me where I need to go to file a companit against them. What they are doing must be eligale.
Nancy Rivera is about the worst customer service person that I have ever delt with.
Please, if anyone knows where or who governs them please let me know.
Thanks,
rhas30@northstate.net

OK< I just found out how to take care of this.
You have to file an Identity Theft Report with the police. The report doesn't cost anything and Merchant One will be required to provide a copy of all relating documents to the requesting police officer. In order to prove that you ordered, they are supposed to have your signature in most cases (in my case the signature was forged to the contract - but it is not necessary to compare) and they have to provide proof of services.
When you call the police, they will dispatch an officer to your home or business depending on if you need to file for identity theft for yourself or your business. When the officer arrives, please have an extra cpy for him of all your pertainent documents for his file, and a copy of your driver's licesnse ahead of time. Once he returns to his office, you can call back and he will provide you with the Report #. (Or after the investigation is completed, you can order a copy of the report, usually for $20 I think.)
You can then take the report/report number to you bank, credit card, wahtever and explain that they have to refund the money to you because this entity/person stole your identity in order to make the purchase (contrary to popular belief, identity theft also occurrs when you agree to a product or service and you don't get the product or service as contractually obligated).

I strongly recommend using PAYPAL. Merchant one is a thief. i cancelled the day after i signed up because they could not deliver what was promised & they've been charging me ever since - THREE MONTHS. Their own employee admits i cancelled in July and yet they will not refund the charges for services I NEVER USED. Close to $200. I had to close out my bank account to get them to stop charging me and they refuse to refund my money. PAYPAL is a superior service and i've never had one issue and is cheaper than Merchant one.

Thieves.. Stay away. They will invent fees to get your money and get away with it.

contact me! i have the same problem...

Stay away from these thieves !

I worked with them 6 years ago and their practices were criminal back then. I'm amazed that the attorney's general of the
states haven't brought action against them. Although I like them as people, their business practices are clearly
fraudulent on several levels. I would strongly advise no one to do business with them.

Amen, beware of Jason, he is with Merchant One and makes collection calls. He will call and listen to all of the problems and say he has to talk to his boss and will take care of it. Then you get another threatening collection letter (They threaten to destroy your personal credit rating) and then Jason calls again as if the first call never took place and you go through the whole thing again. They are listed as "certified" by the BBB. It doesn't say much for the BBB if this is true. Good Luck.

Same problems here. PCI fee, early termination fee, no monthly statements etc.
Reported them to BBB, Florida Attorney General. Waiting for response.
They ARE thieves no doubt. Report them to every authority you can think of.
The are praying on small businesses.

Card Service International is another merchant services processing company that uses these same tactics. they sort of sneak your application into an agreement and then start billing you for monthly fees. When you complain they send you a bill for several hundred dollars to cancel your account. This appears to be their business plan. Avoid them at all costs.. Try Intuit's (quicken/quick books) service. They are much cheaper per month and do not have a long term contract.

Sadly I read of the terrible service and dishonest acts of Merchantone before submitting an application. I called to cancel 24 hours later, yet they still charged my checking account $875.00 cancellation fee. I have complained to the BBB and I am waiting. This company should be thrown out of business. They are thieves.

A.L

I had the exact same experience with them. Pci compliance fees and then a cancelation fee. Both were not made clear to me before I signed on. Which I do not remember ever signing anything. When I asked for proof that I signed they just sent a PDF of the rules. Nothing with my signature. Do not use them!

You would think that banks would realize that these guys are not really in the CC processing business

What a scam. I moved to MerchantOne after a previous bad experience. I was assured that PCI compliance was something between the processors and the credit card companies, NOT an expense that should be passed onto the client, especially a sole propprietor that doesn't even use a computer system and processes half a dozen cards a week- MAX. What an insult to my intelligence when my business account was debited $129 for 'PCI compliance' ### that does not even pertain to my business a few months after the switch, and not only did they debit MY account, but each of my staff members! They hit us for more money than we pay in regular authorized fees in a year. They don't care and were happy to send me a cancellation form if I didn't like it- that way they can charge me another fee for cancelling. ###s. How pathetic that the only way their business can be successful is by scamming people...

If there are any decent processing companies out there for sole proprietors with a minimal amount of weekly processing, please let us know.

~www.IslandSanctuarySalon.com

It is a shame when a small business owner has to wary of doing business when anyone.
You should definitely check out any proposed business on one or two search engines,
The BBB and maybe with the area Attorney General. If you have already been scammed turn the information over to your bank, the BBB, the area Attorney General and even the FBI (the scammers may be guilty of conspiracy to commit fraud) You should also watch your bank account since these predators have access to your personal and banking information and are certainly not above identity theft, or just plain theft, and of selling your information to other scammers. Be careful and watchful and always post companies like MerchantOne on complaint boards to keep others away from them. Best of Luck

absolute scam of a company. I inquired about using them, never used or even received a reader yet they started billing and continued to bill me. I call in many times to get it to stop and got "yes we will stop " and yet the billings continued. I eventually had to put in a stop order with bank. Total scam company. Caveat emptor

Merchant One is a ripoff. Here's a copy of their termination letter- You'll see there's no question that they are aggressive in their retention policy. Also, don't let them fool you into thinking that they work with Quickbooks. They Don't. They send you to a 4th party company that sells a plug-in for $175, $10/month and .08 per transaction - that's over and above what Merchant One charges you!

This company has been making daily sales calls even after repeated requests to remove us from their call list. Today when I received the call again from the employee Danato (same one I spoke with yesterday) and explained that we were not interested he proceeded to mock my response by saying "Blah blah blah blah blah blah oh I am sorry we must have a bad connection" and hung up. I did call right back using the phone number on the caller ID; however there was no formal greeting and said there is no "call list", but he'll be sure to note not to call us in the future. Yeah Right! Isn't there some way to file a formal complaint for harassing phone calls? I have the history on our call logs from our phone systems.

As President of the Woodstock Playhouse I made the decision to sign with Merchant One through the 2009 summer season only. The statements that started to come in beginning at the end of August enumerated the deposits and the fees & all seemed to come together. In August the total charge to our account was $101.07. They took that amount on Sept. 3rd. They also took the unauthorized $142.50 on Sept. 21st. On the Sept. statement the total charge to our account was $71.80. That was taken on Oct. 5th but they also took the unauthorized $129.00 on Oct. 2nd. Nowhere on their statements were those two figures listed. It was at this point that I began my quest to cancel with them. No one EVER returned a phone call. Then I emailed. No response Ever since November 2009 I’ve been trying to cancel this service. In January we were charged $99 for an annual renewal when we’d only be with them five months and I’d been assured repeatedly by Ross in the beginning that there was no long term commitment and I could cancel any month I chose. Spoke with a guarded and rude employee. I again said that I’d been trying to cancel this service for months and now they had charged us an annual fee. I sent a certified letter on 2/4/10 and got a call on 2/10/10. I spoke with Nancy who said they would settle for $25 a month for the balance of a 3 year contract. No three year commitment or such wording on my documents - ANYWHERE. Then she said she could settle for $295. I told her I wanted the $370.50 stolen returned to us and I had instructed our bank to disallow further debits from MerchantOne. Nancy gave no satisfaction and I thought that these issues remained unresolved. But this saga continues. I was putting this into the hands of the Board of Directors to decide a course of action. Yesterday - on Lincoln’s Birthday no less – again UNAUTHORIZED – Merchant One debited our bank account for the $295 that Nancy had mentioned. We now are forced to close this checking account so that they don’t have any further access. This is a despicable group of people who lie, cheat and now steal! Stay away from them!

I agree with everything that has been said above. When I inquired about setting up an account I asked the salesperson, Scott Gonzales, to be absolutely up front and clear with me about what fees there would be, because my business was not bringing in a lot of money and I knew I couldn't handle extra fees (beyond the regular monthly fees). He assured me there would be no additional fees of any kinds, and wrote that into my contract. He also assured me that I had a short-term contract. That was in 10/08. Since then, they have charged me for the $99 annual fee two years in a row, which meant that I had to do battle with them to get them to return the funds. This past December I made the decision to close my account because my business had failed. When I called Merchant One I was told that I would be charged an early cancellation fee of $295 because I was in a 3-year contract! I have argued with them over and over that that is not the case, but I have not been able to get them to budget. I cannot afford $295. Is there anything we can do, collectively, against them?

Opened a merchant account. I explained to the salesman that I was a very small businessman and I did not know whether I would be in business for 1 month, 3 months or forever. I explained I would be doing internet sales and point of sales. The sales rep did not explain they were setting me up with 2 accounts. This cost an additional $30 per month. From my understanding it was a month to month contract but as I found out that was not the case. I did not need 2 accounts or a 5 year contract! When I tried to close one of the accounts, I was told it was on a 3 or 5 year contract-no one knew for sure. To get out of a contract it was going to cost me $25 per month per contract for 3-5 years depending on who I spoke to. After trying to resolve the issue many times with customer service, they said I could cancel one account now at no charge. My sales rep said he would work with me in 2010 to resolve the other account.. I felt like I was caught between a rock and a hard place, so I agreed. They email me a cancellation letter and nowhere did it state that I would be charged. So I contacted Nancy (a supervisor) at Merchant One and told her I would not sign this until she sent an email confirming that I would not be billed. Her email stated
“Kelvin-I have attached a cancellation form. Please note: Your business will not incur any penalties for terminating one account because you still will have one active merchant account with us. Thank you.”
Within 24 hours of faxing the cancellation letter, Merchant One took $800 out of my account. After this I was no longer willing to wait another month to work on the other account. I contacted Merchant One immediately. They admitted money should not have been taken out of my account and said it would be replaced in 7-14 business days. That is great that they will return the money but now I have overdrafts and other fees acquiring. I no longer had money for a show that I wanted to do, I was hoping to get some sales before Christmas, well that never happened. The money was finally returned but it has cost me in many other ways. Merchant One’s excuse for taking the money was that I did not send the fax to the right person. I believe the sales rep said what he needed to say to get me to sign and once I did, all the terms changed. I signed up for a $25 per month account and got a nightmare.
Summary: Lied to andor neglecting to disclose terms & agreements of account (s)
Poor response from customer service
Unauthorized monies taken from account after email says it will not happen
Poor response from messages or emails

Yes I totally agree that Merchant One is a rip off. They always charge me a ridiculous amount just for me using their services. When I checked my bank account I found out they charge me additional 129 for PCI! what the heck. I called them and they said that all merchant companies are required to charge PCI fees now. Been doing some research online and called some merchant companies and found out not all merhcant companies have to charge PCI fees, it's another way companies make extra money off of their customers. I wanted to cancel my contract with Merchant One but the fee is $295! thank goodness I only have a one year contract with them, I guess I'm going have to stay with them for another eight months. But honestly stay away from this company. Their a big rip off and their customer services are always lost and confused they don't know what their doing.

I signed up with MerchantOne in May 2009. I was told by the sales rep that there was no contract, no cancellation fees. I asked three times for information about any fees not included in the Schedule of Fees. He reassured me there would be no hidden fees. Never once was a PCI fee mentioned. Fast forward to July and my account is debited for $129. I call the sales rep and ask him what the charge was about and he said I was notified on my May Statement. The problem is, I never got a May Statement since I signed up late in May. And by the way, if all MerchantOne customers were notified in May about the PCI Compliance fee, then why couldn't the sales rep tell me about the fee when asked repeatedly to disclose all fees. His answer: I wasn't aware of the fee at that time. Seriously?

I then tried to cancel my service with MerchantOne only to find out that I was going to owe them the greater amount of $295 OR an amount equal to $25 a month for the remainder of my contract. What contract I say! After several days on the phone with 4 different customer service reps I find out that when you sign their application you can attach yourself to them for up to 5 years. The rep said in my case it was 3 years, but when we filed a claim with Florida's Consumer Affairs department, the man from MerchantOne who responded to my complaint said I was indebted to them for 5 years. Now they can't get their story straight.

So for right now, I am paying another processor to actually do business as well as paying MerchantOne because I am simply too stubborn to pay them $800 (or $1500 if it really is a 5 year contract) to leave. It is cheaper to pay the $7.95 a month service fee and remain a customer... more like a financial prisoner.

By the way, my new processor does not charge a PCI Compliance fee. Will I still have to pay MerchantOne's PCI fee even if I am not processing cards through them? I wonder...

No, all companies ARE NOT charging PCI fees. PCI fees do not apply to every merchant, and do not need to be charged to EVERY merchant! I am with an ISO myself, and we do not, nor do we plan to charge ANY PCI fees. PCI is a way for a processor to make money while most times not doing anything.

PCI is real and is not something made up. All companies are charging it now. Merchant One just got to it first. Don't fool yourselves. Visit www.pcisecuritystandards.org for more information on it. And read the application before signing. Its all you have to do. Everything is on there in plain English. If your business is a scam, dont bother signing up. They will hold your funds in order to protect the card holder. This is the only reason they hold funds. To protect the card holder. If you are a legitamate business, they work just find and are very knowledgeable about their industry.