Comments on: Pivotal Payments Review

By: Kevin

Kevin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:57:33 +0000

Hey Liz, Close your account and open a new one. I know its a pain but that way they can't take anymore money. LFG are in bed with pivotal to rip people off. Ignore the threats and letters. Pivotal tried doing that with me and eventually they just stopped calling. Kevin

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By: Kevin

Kevin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:53:53 +0000

Hey Robert, Close your bank account and open a new one. That is the only way you can keep them from taking your money. I had to. They called and harrased me for a about a year to pay them the supposed liquidated damages I owed them for stopping with them early. I just ignored them and they haven't phoned me in a few months. Hope this helps. Kevin

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By: Alana Valentino

Alana Valentino — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:13:42 +0000

I agree with everything all of you are saying, I wish i had found this out sooner to save time, aggrivation and $$$$. what we need is a class action lawsuit to get our money back and expose them for what they really are. ANYONE ELSE IN?

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By: Carla Knudsen

Carla Knudsen — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 22:19:27 +0000

I have had the same problems. When I wanted to terminate my contract after a year and a half of poor service and crappy terminals, I asked the customer service rep if I would be charged a cancellation fee and was told no. Then, after terminating my service a month earlier than my request, they helped themselves to over $3600 from my bank account. When I called to inquire, I was told that this is a liquidation fee, which I was not advised of, otherwise I would've just stuck it out for another year and a half! Of course they don't tell you because they can still get paid for providing no service (which is pretty much what I had anyway)! Still I am glad to be rid of them. A hard lesson to learn. I will never return to this company as a payment provider and would never recommend them to anyone!!

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By: James Xue

James Xue — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 03:44:59 +0000

Found this blog and knew that most people here had much bad experience than I had with pivotal payments at this moment. I signed contract with this company for a bout 1 year. It worked fine to me in the fist few months, then the unexpected fees deducted from my bank account. Pivotal payment just does not charge the fees according to the contract. Right now the unexpected fees that not under the contract is about $200 in the last few months, but who knows what other fees that they may charge in the future. When I called, they just asked me to check the terms and conditions on their website. They told me that they have the right to charge the extra fees any time when required. Can not understand that they can do the things not according to the contract, instead asking to check their website terms and conditions. They can change the Terms and conditions on the website in any ways at any time. That means that company have the potential ability to deduct any amount money from your bank account. Stay away from the company.

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By: Robert Carmichael

Robert Carmichael — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:30:51 +0000

Pivotal, worse desicion that we ever made in our bistro. Not only, are credit card charges processed, in our case 4 and 5 times on the same charge, but since July (2011), at least one day each month, at the close of business, none of the tips are added to the bills, which means we have to phone the customer, sometimes weeks after, and ask if we can add the tip as it was not charged on that day . . when you have a 100 charge day, that adds up to $1,000.00's of dollars. And Pivotal is on no help. I suggest that any other company would be better to go with then this one. And I can't get out of the contract with them.

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By: Jerry Battaglia

Jerry Battaglia — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 21:38:29 +0000

Warning to all Pivotal customers, I'v been fighting with them for 2 months. Before you cancel your contract, CLOSE YOUR BANK ACCOUNT and open a new one. Pivotal picked my account 5 months ago for a compliance fee with no warning so I called, they were so rude and told me they could do what ever they wanted. I was so mad I called a new company. My new company told me I had to cancel my Pivotal contract. The lady at Pivotal told me I had 2 months left on my contract so just let it run out and send them a letter to not auto renew, I did, then when my contract was over, Pivotal took 400.00 out of my account! After hours on hold and several days later and some advice from my attorney, I got my money back, I'm are heart patient and believe me they tested it. My contract ended Nov 15, 2011 and last week and on 12/6/11 Pivotal picked my account for another 109.00 for another compliance fee, MY CONTRACT IS OVER. Its been over a week, several phone calls, more advice from my attorney (federal offense), lots more time on hold, still haven't got my 109 bucks back.

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By: Liz-Ann Munro Lamarre

Liz-Ann Munro Lamarre — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 10:44:38 +0000

As above…the sweetest sales person, who was completely unreachable once I was signed up. The sign-up bonus of $250? I sent in the form, twice, one by fax, one by the same email I had previously been communicating with the sales rep with – and I followed up by phone but it never came.

The terminal started quitting mid-process after ~ 2 months, every time it was a long (on hold) phone call to ensure my client’s payment went through and only once, and this is no way to run a clinic.
Eventually the terminal was replaced – the new terminal exhibited the same problemswithin a week.
After ~ 8 months of this, I cancelled my contract with Pivotal & Global succesfully, but LFG continued to withdraw lease charges for the non-functioning equipment. I sent the equipment back to LFG: they refused it and sent it back to me. I sent it to Pivotal, and it hasn’t come back.
I wrote LFG a registered termination letter for the former lease – since there is no equipment I am leasing, we don’t have a lease – with a deadline to respond or else I’ll imply tacit agreement. No response.
I took the letter with proof of delivery to my credit union, we put a stop on the monthly automatic withdrawals and recovered the most recently taken withdrawal.

Now LFG is screaming at me: long faxes and harrassing phonecalls to my clinic.
I am concerned they may try to take money out of my account again, or worse.

I am just running an independent dental hygiene clinic – most of the dental overhead but none of the lucrative dental procedures – and I am providing care for people who are unable to access dental care. I don’t want to go under because of a company with a history of ripping people off.

Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do next?

Many thanks,
Liz-Ann
The Smile People, dental hygiene inc.
BC, Canada

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By: Rudy

Rudy — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 20:09:31 +0000

First I find it laughable that any one merchant can hold accountable the payment processor for the agreed upon fees in the merchant processing agreement. Most payment processors today hire 1099 workers and any misrepresentation is usually done by the sales representative. First one should never lease a terminal as they are very inexpensive to buy and most leases have long term committments most of which are 4 years. Termination fees are written in any merchant processing agreement and yes they do vary from company to company however most are in the range of $300 to $500 dollars. Merchants should ask these type of questions especially if they have been in business for a number of years. Surely if the question is asked most are going to confirm there termination fee. It is unlikely that any sales person is going to tell a potential customer what the termination fee and for that matter how many other businesses tell you up front what their temination fees. Not many. It is the due diligence of the merchant to ask the right questions. Most payment processors will cover some of the bankcard assn mandates such as PCI Compliance as there are requirements that the payment processor and the merchant must comply with to ensure the fullest security standards are met. In addition there are annual interchange increases which take affect in the spring and early fall these increases are passed along to th merchant. While its true that some of hese fees can be inflated to payment processors likening. To avoid these fees then one should consider the benefits of Interchange Plus Pricing. This method of pricing discloses te exact cost for every interchange category which ensures that the actual increase or decrease of interchange is passed on to the merchant. I would have to say that in most cases it is the merchant who didn't do their due diligence or it was a dishonest sales representative who did not provide honest answers. There are many inexperienced sales reps within the payment processing field and it is important for any merchant to understand the payment processing business especially when you consider that there are very few if any cash businesses left.

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By: Corey Illingworth

Corey Illingworth — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:38:52 +0000

I cannot believe this company can continue to do business. Pivotal Payments had a forged contract on file for myself. The signatures, dates, or print did not match mine anywhere on the agreement and still they stole $1500 from my account which they called liquidated damages after canceling with them. This term is nowhere in there forged contract even if I had signed it. One of there agents would call on my behalf claiming to be a representative from my company furthering their fraudulent actions. When I explained this to them they were still unwilling to help. They just tried to pass me off onto the next representative, and in two cases, was the same representative that I had spoken to already. Even after explaining to them that two parties have to enter into an agreement and you can bind someone to a contract they did not enter into, they still refused to correct the situation.

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