| IPayment Inc |
| iPayment Inc. AVOID doing business with this company! Thousand Oaks, California |
| 16th of Mar, 2011 by User730673 |
I would like to briefly describe my experience with this company, in the hope that it might help prevent someone else from having to endure the same thing my company went through. I began using the iPayment processor for my property management business on December 1, 2010. On December 9, I was contacted by Jennifer from the risk department. She was calling to "verify" a transaction that she said exceeded our "normal average". I verified the transaction information with her. She called me back a few days later to tell me we had to return the money to our customer because we were not allowed to take payment for services more than 90 days in advance. I explained that we are a property management company that frequently takes rent payments in advance. I was informed that there was nothing I could do, not even sign an indemnity agreement. I reluctantly refunded my customer. Unfortunately, our problems did not stop there. Jennifer also informed me of a problem with a chargeback in the amount of $344.00. I was given the pertinent information and I contacted the customer to find out what was going on with the payment. The customer told me that he had some fraudulent activity on his card that was not related to us, but that all transactions on his card had been flagged by his credit card company. I called Jennifer back and relayed this information to her and she told me that I would need to get a letter from the customer. She also requested that I submit proof of the transaction, which we faxed to her. She further informed me that I needed to get this taken care of promptly because a chargeback on a new account may result in cancellation of our service. The following day, after speaking to the tenant about the need for a letter, I called Jennifer back again to update her on the progress. This time she was asking me to verify a “random batch” of credit card transactions. I was required to provide Jennifer with the contact information for 6 or 7 customers that had transactions in the batch. She again reiterated that I needed to get a letter from the customer about the $344.00 chargeback. I explained that I had been in contact with the
tenant multiple times about getting this letter and I was not having any luck in getting him to follow through. She reminded me that it would reflect badly on our account if it was not resolved. She also informed me that iPayment could withhold funds for a period of up to 6 months if we were unable to obtain the letter. On January 3rd, 2011, I was contacted by our Accounting Manager after she had completed an audit of our bank account. She discovered that our account was missing approximately $10,000 in credit card payments. I told her that every batch showed it had been processed properly so there was no reason for the shortage. I contacted Jennifer to ask her about the missing funds and I was told that iPayment was going to “hold onto them” for a period of no less than 30 days. I explained to her that it was unacceptable for them to hold $10,000 of our money over a $344 transaction. At this point, I demanded to speak to her supervisor and she gave me the contact information of the head of the Risk Department, Julie. I called Julie to ask that the funds be released. Julie told me that she had personally reviewed our case, and that she had reduced the normal hold period from 6 months, to just 30 days. She also informed me that we had exceeded our monthly processing limit of $5,000, and told me that any transaction beyond this limit was also subject to be held for 6 months. She also told me that we would incur higher processing fees on those amounts above our limit. She suggested we fill out a form to raise the monthly volume limit on our account. I told her that we would fill out the form she was requesting, but I asked her to release the funds. I explained to Julie that our business was a brick-and-mortar establishment that had been in business for more than 20 years and wasn’t going anywhere. She offered that if I could produce 90 days worth of credit card transactions for our business that she would release the funds they were holding. I obtained these records and forwarded them to Julie via email. The funds were released immediately. I told her that in all of the times that I had spoken with Jennifer, she never once mentioned that iPayment was holding onto any of our money. I asked her if there was a way for us to get around the iPayment rule that barred us from accepting rent payments in advance of 90 days. She said no. I told Julie that we would be forced to look for another processor due to the complete incompatibility of iPayment to our business model. She gave me tips on what to look for in a new processor, and stated repeatedly throughout our conversation that she had worked for “almost every processor out there”. I took her advice, and shopped for a new processor. After I cancelled the service, each of my accounts were charged a $350 cancellation fee, even though I wrote a letter which detailed the issues which led to the account being cancelled. If you value your time, money and sanity, AVOID this processor. Jeff |
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