iPayment Inc. Review
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- Date Established
- 1999
- Location
- Nashville, TN
Pros
- Large company with a long track record
- Opportunities for negotiation
Cons
- Early termination fee likely
- Undisclosed contract terms reported
- Withheld funds somewhat common
Overview
iPayment has been in the game since 1999, and currently have almost 200,000 companies in their network, making them a fairly large processor. They also have thousands of independent sales offices and agents that resell their services on a day-to-day basis, not to mention the companies that they’ve bought-out over the past few years.
What does this all mean to you? Well, most of these larger organizations that rely on a network of outside contractors and subsidiaries tend to have less control over what those contractors and subsidiaries do. It becomes difficult for them to keep everybody in line, so they end up paying for their partner’s mistakes. Don’t feel too bad for iPayment though; they are, after all, making money off of ALL of those partners and sister companies.
Personally, I think that if you’re going to have such a wide network of resellers and sister companies, then you should dedicate just as much time, money and effort to make sure those entities are representing your brand and services the right way. I’m not too sure if iPayment is doing that though.
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of iPayment resellers that are good, including MerchantPlus and Flagship Merchant Services, but there are others that aren’t so great. You’ll find a large number of complaints both on their BBB profile, and other review/complaint type websites. Check out the Negative Reviews section below to find out which ones stand out the most. The only testimonials I found on the iPayment site are from partners and resellers. Just goes to show how important partners and resellers are to them.
If you sign up with iPayment, there’s a 3-year contract, and you’ll most likely pay a cancellation fee of $350 if you break that contract within the first year. Their customer support is questionable, and their public advertising/contract term disclosure is basically non-existent. For big businesses looking for a low rate quote, iPayment may be worth checking out. But for small and mid-sized companies, I’d look elsewhere. iPayment gets 3.5 out of 5 stars today.
Table of Contents
Products & Services
iPayment is a large direct processor with the capability to set up even big businesses with extensive hardware, software, and services. The company doesn’t advertise specific services publically since most of their accounts aren’t boarded through their online sales material. If you choose to sign up with iPayment directly, you will have to ask your account representative about specific service capabilities. From what I’ve seen, there are not many proprietary solutions offered by iPayment.
Fees & Rate
You won’t find any fees or rates disclosed in iPayment’s public marketing, which leads me to believe there may be issues with standardization of scheduled fees. Here are some fees that I’m aware of:
- PCI compliance fee: $100 annually
- PCI non-action fee: $30 monthly if you don’t complete the PCI self-assessment
- Chargeback fee: $25
- Statement fee: $8
Again, this is not a comprehensive list, and your actual fees may vary based on the account rep that signs you up.
As for rates, I’d encourage you to ask for an interchange-plus plan. iPayment is willing to negotiate with you, so don’t feel obligated to settle for their first offer.
Contract Length & Early Termination Fee
You can expect a three year, auto-renewing contract with iPayment, but I was told that they’re willing to negotiate. Most all processors are willing to waive the contract term so long as you’re worth it to them as a merchant. Termination fees are assessed based on the amount of time left on your contract: $350 if you cancel before the first year is up, and $250 if you cancel within the second or third year.
Sales & Advertising Transparency
As I mentioned earlier, you won’t find many specific claims made in iPayment’s advertising, so it’s difficult to assess transparency. Is a non-existent window transparent? Generally, I consider a lack of public information to be discouraging.
Aside from the branded corporate advertising, all bets are off when you go to deal with iPayment’s independent sales offices and subsidiaries. Your sales experience will vary greatly depending on who sells you the account, and who that person is working for. A few subsidiaries/DBA’s of iPayment are: Card Payment Solutions, CSI Processing, 1st National Processing, E-Commerce Exchange, First Federal Financial Services and Integrated Card Service. In 2012 iPayment bought out Flagship Merchant Services too.
Customer Service & Technical Support
Judging by some of their negative reviews, their service isn’t much to talk about. Don’t expect a lovely experience when dealing with their customer service, especially when you have billing issues or questions for the risk management department.
Have you worked with iPayment? Feel free to leave us your review. Don’t forget to read the user review and comment policy.
Negative Reviews
iPayment’s corporate BBB profile has an “A+” rating, with 285 complaints in the last three years. This is a bit up from the previous 278 complaints, but I’m really disappointed to see that the majority of these complaints (224 to be exact) were not solved to the satisfaction of the merchant. You can find plenty of negative reviews and complaints against iPayment on RipOffReport and other popular complaint sites. The most common complaints I’ve seen include:
- Undisclosed contract terms and fees: Since iPayment relies so heavily on independent sales contractors, this is to be expected.
- Poor customer service: I know some will argue that the quality of customer service depends on your account representative, and that is somewhat true. But a lot of service calls go through the corporate call centers, not your personal agent, and – based on what I’ve heard from merchants using iPayment – these exchanges leave much to be desired.
- Withholding of funds/termination of accounts: This is a very common complaint, but we can’t always blame iPayment for these issues. They accept a certain amount of risk for taking on a merchant. If that merchant starts conducting business outside of the agreed upon terms, then iPayment has a right to investigate. Granted, there will be the occasional false positive, but that’s part of the deal. There are two main reasons that will get you red flagged and/or shut down by iPayment. (1) If you start processing way beyond the estimated monthly processing volume that you initially gave them when you signed up, and (2) if you sell something that is way above the average ticket price that you told them. If you anticipate either of those two numbers will change in any way, I highly recommend that you contact iPayment’s risk department to let them know ahead of time. I would, of course, also like to see iPayment work proactively to prevent this type of headache for you.
Positive Reviews
The iPayment site does have a few testimonials, but they all seem to be from their referral partners. It’d be nice to see some case studies from actual merchants that they’ve worked with. In the meantime, be sure to ask for references. Especially for businesses that are in the same industry as you.
Final Verdict
If you’re in charge of selecting a payment processor for a large company, I think iPayment is worth getting a quote from, along with other direct processing providers like Chase Paymentech and First Data. But for small and mid-sized businesses, there’s little reason to go directly through the iPayment corporate office. You’re better off having your account services by a smaller ISO running through iPayment, like MerchantPlus or Flagship Merchant Services or consider some mobile processors.
Whether you sign up with iPayment directly or through an independent office, I recommend that you firmly negotiate your contract terms and get quotes from at least a few other processors, so you have some bargaining chips. Remember that iPayment needs to win your business. Don’t give it up without a fight! For now, I can offer iPayment Merchant Services 3.5 stars out of 5. They get the job done, but overall I’m not really impressed.
Make sure to check out our merchant account comparison chart, and don’t forget to comment below with your iPayment experiences and reviews!
Based in New York’s Hudson Valley, Tom has written for Merchant Maverick since 2013. His work is cited by publications including TechCrunch, Washington Business Journal, and Bank Advisor. He currently serves as Product Manager.
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OMG, Thier customer service is like a hell loop that never ends, I can not find out who my account rep is, They deducted fees for month on end for products I didnt order or want, Ho wthe hell do these people stay in buisiness? I dont want the hassel of changing providers but I,m going to after todays nightmare service!!!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Bijoux Fantasia
DO NOT USE THEM. They will change the rates and will not inform you. My statement went from $87.90 for their one time fee on 12/31/2017 to $191.95 on 12/31/2018. What a raise!!! Their reason: “we changed bank” so I guess the customer gets only notice when the bank statement arrives but too late to call to reverse the charge since they claim it is a one time fee. What a bunch a crooks and liars.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: wellnesstan
IPAYMENT THE WORST MERCHANT EVER IN USA… they take money from you in the regular basic without authorization security fees and extra fees, confusing you with all credit card processing fee and no answers…WORST COSTUMER SERVICES
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Organization Name: Freedom Fireworks
Worst experience ever with a merchant company. They are completely DISHONEST> They have independent sales agents make big promises and they do not follow through. They charged me $3000 in error, and admitted it was wrong. Then they would only refund me $2,000 saying that I should have noticed the charges piling up. Even when I said I would close my account they refused to budge, they would rather keep the stolen $800 than keep my business which would bring in far more for them.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Valley Bowl
For over the past eighteen months this company has been taking a monthly fee out of our account. Even though we cancelled their services in November of 2016. We are still waiting on repayment for the funds they took out. Wevfinally got a number to contact them about our issues, after 2 weeks we have not had our issues reolved.
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Organization Name: Authentic Auctions LLC
I wish I had found this before I signed up with them. Small companies stay clear. If I had recorded my conversation with the sale representative, I would be charging them with fraud. I specifically asked what the fees were. I was told $14.95 a month plus 25c per transaction and the credit card percent. I specifically said that I did not want any of the other services as we are a very small company. He said he would opt us out of them. First month went perfectly, they took the % out of the transactions but then they charged me a lot of fees at the end of the month. When I called, I was told the fees were mandatory so I told them to close the account. $250 to close it or $14.95 a month for 10 months. No brainer right? So, I’m not using their services and they charged me $125 in fees for September. Now I find out that it will cost me the compliance fees, the $14.95 a month plus a $99 year fee so that keeping it open for six months will cost $239 or closing it will be $250. I have two business and two accounts, the second account has cost me over $100 in fees and I’ve only processed one $5 test charge on it on my own card. It’s been 2 months and they still haven’t closed the account. So, small business – STAY AWAY from this over feed company with that is very easy to sign up with but like pulling teeth to get out of.
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Organization Name: Roger Wilco Deptford Nj
Same as everyone else. Poor customer service. Stole tons of money. Canceled and still charged me 19.95 for 6 months saying I didn’t cancel. Finally canceled after multiple calls and got charged a 350.00 cancelation charge. I sent all the equipment back and received a email 6 months later saying you owe us equipment which they already received. Worst service slow processing. Takes about 2 minutes per transaction, absolutely unacceptable as a retail establishment. Best thing was to get away and cut service. DO NOT SIGN UP…….. SCAM…… someone should shut this place down .
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Organization Name: the peak antler company
Absolute Fraud! these guys are crooks. they promised me less than 3% fee and charged me 6-7%. They told me “no contract” and then then charged me $500 for a cancellation fee.
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Organization Name: Lincoln Guards Lincoln Tactical
Buyer’s remorse for sure! This is not a joke. Run away from these people. I don’ know how our company missed this when we were looking for a credit card processor. Endless bad reviews. People are loosing their shirts by dealing with these people!!! I can only say I am glad we figured them out early on. Looking at what has happened to other businesses, it could have been much worse! Our company ran a whole bunch of transactions over a few days at a trade show. Got our money (around $8000.000 from sales we did). Aside from the occasional sale, we don’t charge very much. Had a big payment, and like clockwork, they are holding the funds just like everyone else who is complaining! There is nothing suspicious about this. They are holding funds from a regular customer. The amount of the hold is putting us in a huge bind. We are getting out while we can.
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Organization Name: Inner Me Studios
Beware – I’ve been with this company for many years. I signed up another account / location with them but when I terminated that account in writing they neglected to terminate it. For over 1 year they continued to charge me over $60 a month for an account with $0 in sales because they said they never received my email. When I resent the email they said it was my responsibility to make sure they successfully terminated my account and was not willing to credit me the additional charges or provide a refund. Even though I’ve been a loyal customer for years and have another account with them. I will swtich providers today. Horrible customer service and I’m sure they did get my notice but purposely failed to terminate my account. If I iddn’t have ther other account – I probably would have noticed the charges sooner – but I thought the charges were all valid.
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Organization Name: advancedtransmission
i have never in life seen any company like this .they have been holding my money for 8 days and every time i speak them they say that thae money has been released and i should get it whith in 48 hours .this has been going on for a week and a day.i don’t know what to do. I wish i never tried this company,some real bootlegs.
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Organization Name: Cali Bail Bonds
Wow what a terrible company it didn’t matter who i spoke with they didn’t care . The worst at anything they touched from holding funds so i couldn’t make payroll to taking money directly out of my account huge chunks of money where taken directly from my account to get the funds re deposited i had to detail every deal with with every person all which had to be recalled and gave them the opportunity to now reconsider paying for services that already had been rendered , to them opening two accounts under the same name and charging me twice for something called pci compliant which is a total scam theirs no way to put it they are pretty much being on the verge of being criminals .They told me there motto is being in business together that is a motto that is a joke on so many levels there risk management dept the worst people who are only trying to cover themselves have no interest in your company , never answer the phone never return phone calls and when they do make you jump threw so many hoops its put all on you they do nothing terrible run company from top to bottom .
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Organization Name: MKG
TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE Custom service. i was with them for 3 months before switching ! They took our money, they said we can get a refund we got less than half, it took ,me a whole month and a half before we got any money, it took a month before anyone called me back! Finally got a hold of the Manager directly and bothered him enough for the money. STILL CHARGED ME EVEN WHEN MY ACCOUNT WAS CLOSED! I had to call back and tell them to stop charging me 3 months in a row! I had to keep the account number just in case, since they do not check! Save yourself, and your money, go with someone else! WORST MERCHANT EVER!
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Organization Name: royal business systems
Criminal organization I believe. Review shows 2 stars but that was a typo. Stay very far away from these sinister people. Just look at the owners.
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Organization Name: 1986
It is my first Bad comment giving to any company,Unfortunately, I have learned the hard way, I simply trusted them over the phone when I switched over to them, after 3 months I reviewed my charges in detail I realized I have been charged for my CC Transactions bet 4 and 5%when I called them they showed me all fine lines, and if even they could answer my questions the transferred me to the higher-ups, and even he had no explanation… BUT I got no refund till my last charge went to debt collection agency, I paid it offPlease STAY AWAY FROM IPAYMENT- For your benefit
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Organization Name: The wine us gormet
I have never had a bad experience with iPayment. Merchant Services is always kind to me and have taken time to answer all of my questions. It’s plain and simple read what you are signing up for.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Ipayment has the worst customer service I have ever had to deal with. They are a small group and will monitor calls and put you in their voicemail if they do not want to deal with a problem (A game for them). I am sick of their customer service reps treating me like dirt. When they do talk to you they repeat the same thing over and over even when you tell them you don’t understand. They bounced my bank account when they charged me $9000 for a customer using a fake credit card since they do not give warnings on charge-backs. They put the account on hold then released it but didn’t account for all of our sales a few are missing. They are charging numerous MONTHLY hidden fees and add them on when ever they want, a few to mention: 19.99 fee for PCI compliant fee and a $19.99 non PCI complaint fee, plus $5 for end of day batches, $8 for statements I have to look up and print off, & $20 for using their website I recommend them retraining their customer services reps and changing their mentality or they will loose all of their customers. They are losing a 5 year customer because of this. I am already in the market for a new merchant service provider. No one should ever pay to put up with this.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Arizona Website Solutions
Oh and after reading the other comments I need to add that after cancelling my account, they kept charging me, even arbitrary amounts. I had to close my checking account to get rid of them. They have no customer service, everyone I talked to was totally rude and obviously trained to mislead and misdirect customers. Was put on “hold” several times to simply fall of the vine.. RUN RUN RUN! (and don’t sign up)
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Anderson Industries
The absolute worse merchant company you could ever find. Hidden contract obligations, obfuscating themselves through numerous front ends and when you go to cancel an account, they suddenly conjure up additional charges. They also con you into a terminal as if it were free but then you find out it isn’t. .I had a struggling company doing smaller ticket transactions and when I finally made a big sale ($1200) these A-Holes treated it like fraud, wanted bank account statements and other crap, and lost me the sale. Swithched to PayPal and Square and am totally happy. Avoid these crooks at all cost!
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Organization Name: AZWS
Follw-up and WARNING! 6 Months after finally getting these con artists out of my life.. I get a 1099-T, an IRS form indicating that they paid me the $1200 that THEY NEVER PROCESSED! So now I am suing them for $1200 and we’ll see where that goes. I figure that if they are going to claim to the federal government that they paid me, then I’ll follow up on that. (see my initial report, the reason I closed my account is that they pitched a fit when I did this charge) The customer service rep told me “We have to report every transaction we try to process” or something down those lines. If you sign up for these guys, just know that it will take you up to two years to get rid of them!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: PCD
Did you get anywhere with the lawsuit? They are holding 25k of my money. They have no customer service to talk to, and essentially the hole company operates like a scam.
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Organization Name: Prosperous Touch Barber & Groom Shop
Honestly, this company is the worst company I’ve dealt with both on a professional and personal level. Their customer service reps are incompetent and unprofessional. What I hate most is the way they bill you – they draft your account BEFORE you get the bill. So you have no clue what comes out per month. With my company being a small business and less than 1 year opened, my sales aren’t as lucrative as one that has been opened for years. A lot of our clientele pay cash. I was previously using Square – but I figured let me get something a bit more professional and easier for my employees to use. Why did I do that? Honest Square and PayPal are better options and easier to use. This company charged me a $100.00 annual fee in December when I signed up in July. So no clue it was going to be charged in December. I escalated this concern to a manager and all they said was “you didn’t read your contract?” That comment pissed me off more than the fact that I was being billed blindly. So I cancelled my account with them last week, I asked if there was a fee to cancel and they didn’t address that question but simply said, we have cancelled your account. Well, today I log in to my account and see that I am charged $250 cancel fee. This was not advised to me originally. There’s more to type but I don’t have time to do so.
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despite canceling the service 8 months ago they continue to charge me. I will now have to cancel and restablish my bank account despite fraud charges being filed. horrible stay away
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The absolute worst service experiences ever! NO customer service! They holding almost $10k for more than 3 weeks!!! Never go with them!
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The absolute worst customer service experiences ever! It took us nearly 3 months to make arrangements to close the account. Just when I thought it was over, I was informed that we had still been charged service fees. When I followed up to ensure that the proper cancellation paperwork was filed I was told that my account couldn’t be verified. I have been on hold for 30 minutes now.
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I wish I could give the negative feedback. I tried setting up my account with them and after reviewing what people had to say about them I I call to closed the account within a few hours of opening it. I specifically explain to the person who helped me opened the account that I have changed my mind and I didn’t want to do business with them anymore. He told be it was okay and that he’ll close it immediately. Three months later I receive a letter that I haven’t been paying my monthly bills and they were sending my name to collection. The didn’t call or informed me anything about my account before the this collection letter. I call them they told me I should have wrote a letter about my account cancellation. These people are scammers. To Be safe don’t do business with them. Whatsoever.
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Very Very long hold times 24-7 Terrible customer service. Avoid at all costs
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Horrible company. One of their affiliated sales companies, Merchant Lynx, sold us on lower rates and the need for a credit card processing machine at $60/mo. They were never able to provide the service since they could not interface with our management software. But I got stuck with a machine I did not need and the salesperson went dark. Would not return calls. Conversations with I Payment got the following response ” sorry but we have nothing to do with the lease..sorry we could not provide the service we promised but can’t do anything for you”. Absolutely ridiculous.
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wish I could give a negative 1 ! This place is a scam! They do NOT disclose annual fees, “compliance ” fees . THis place is a complete ripoff. NOT sure why it gets 3.5 stars when everyone writing in has been scammed, cheated, fleeced. DO NOT USE THEM UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES! Customer service stinks ! We are a small neighborhood organization and they completely misrepresented fees, never spoke about annual fees etc. We received NO satisfaction from anyone we spoke to. They stole over 1000 dollars from our account when we were not even using their service and there is NO recourse! Stay clear!!!!!!!!
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I wish I could give them negative rating. Even after informing the company that we do not need their service as we are closing the business, they said that they sent us the email checking whether or not we wanted the service. Since we already informed them, we did not think it was necessary for is to tell again (never thought this kind off fraud occurs in business).Even after closing they withdrew 7/8 months few of $29.99. When we called and they said that they have to process 4 refunds at a time, and they will give us all. As we did not get it, call few times. Now they say, it is their policy, they cannot refund. THEIR POLICY DOES NOT SAY THEY SHOULD NOT WITHDRAW FROM THE CONSUMER ACCOUNT AFTER THEY CLOSE BUT IT SAYS AFTER FRAUDULANTLY TAKING THE MONEY FROM THE CUSTOMER, DO NOT REFUND.Very cheap policy.
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We fillid out the pre aproval form for ipayment and a few other companies. We made our choice to go with another company. We realized a few months later that ipayment was billing us the entire time for a service that we had never even set up or used. We responded to an email explaining this and they refused to answer any questions or work with us to stop the billing. They would only give us a phone number to call which we did repeatedly wothout ever getting anyone on the line. We had to go through the BBB and ipayment still refused to stop billing us. We have never set up their platform and have never used their service. Beware this company is out for money only they have a total disregard for us and our situation and will probably treat you and your company the same way.
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Do not do business with this company. I would like to give a zero star rating, but I can’t. This company is the gong show of credit card processing. They nickel dime you with undisclosed fees. They make up their own processing limits without telling you. They are a joke.I started processing with them in August 2016. Our transactions range from $20 to $50,000. They were told this at the onset and they set a transaction max at $7,500 without telling us. Needless to say when we tried to process a $30,000 transaction they gagged. They do not have a very robust escalation process to address customer issues. Their escalation process is to start a run around with multiple people who refuse to address the issue and let the problem linger. Their attitude is if they don’t do anything the problem will go away. The long and the short of it iPayment held all proceeds until this could be settled. They took weeks to finally get this transaction reversed and in the process sat on over $150,000 of my cash during their inept handling of the problem they created.We have since changes processing companies. I cannot give a more emphatic warning, DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY!
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I’m having the EXACT same problem. Over 20k with held, please advise on how you was able to get them to release your funds.
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We have had so many issues with this company there is no way I would have enough time to explain it all and am to frustrated with them as they have already wasted to much of our time and funds! Every review on here that I have seen has given them one star why does it show a 3.5 rating on this page? They should issue negative stars specifically for this company and Leaders Merchant Services!
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STAY AWAY FROM THESE JERKS. this is one of the worst companies to get involved with. I have been trying to switch banks since feb and its now end of august. they tell you to do one thing and then another and its always wrong. now they want me to sign a new contract and say its only to make sure that my info is correct and it wont start the contract time over. B.S. even their old sales rep looked at it and said it would start over for 3 years. avoid them like the plague.
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If I could, I’d give them a negative rating. There were so many hidden fees and when we cancelled, we were charged $250. It was never discussed during the cancellation process. When we called, we were told there was nothing we could do. Our company will never use them again!
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Big Problem with iPayment; DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH iPAYMENT! iPayment said I signed up with them in 2015, when in fact I never did such at thing. They told me they had been getting payments from my business bank account since 2015, but the truth of the matter is I have not had a business bank account since 2013. I have never heard of them until this morning with I received a letter from a collection company (Transworld System inc). I’ve been on the phone trying to get them to send me a signed contract documents and a rep said they couldn’t provide it; against company rules. It wasn’t until I called them scammers and frauds and told them I would be reporting them to the BBB. They did a 360 and email me the documents they said I signed. It wasn’t my signature. NOW I have to waste my time and money proving I did not sign any contract with them.
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Has anyone had this problem with “iPayment Inc.?” I have just recently received a bill from a collection company saying I owe iPayment Inc. $155.23. I’ve never heard of them until today. I called them to find out who they were. Now I understand who they are; a “credit care service”. They said they had been charging my business bank account since 2015 which was closed in 2013 and confirmed by my bank that it has been closed since then. I asked them to send me a contract they said I signed. At first they refused until I proceeded to accused them of being a fraudulent company and scammers. She quickly changed her mind and send me a document she said I signed. I told her that was not my signature and she said it was an electronic signature. There are no records of me or anyone using this company in any way shape or from.
Any recommendations from anyone as what to do? Has anyone had a similar experience with this company?
Thank Cruz
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
On May 18, 2016 I received a phone call from “Phil” stating that he needed to speak with the owners regarding a business issue. As soon as he stated he was from iPayment, Inc., I knew this was regarding our merchant services. I told him we were already in a contract with another merchant service company then he cut me off saying that I wasn’t listening to what he was saying. He then told me that if John or Sara didn’t call him back he would report our company to Visa as a high-risk company. He then left this voicemail for Sara:>>Hey Sara, this is Phil with iPayment . we are still trying to get ahold of you with the pending qualification to progress the account into a Level 1 category. You had met with Justin Schrock January 25, 2016. Called the main office not sure if it’s because it’s been so long that we’ve been out there but, John had no idea who were were and the office manager wasn’t any help either with the exception that there was a recent change to Heartland which means that you guys are still at the medium-high risk category. Unless we receive a call back, we’re going to turn this qualification back in as you and John opting to remain at a medium-high risk. Visa/Master card made the account eligible so I will be required to turn that back in so, my number is 480-999-3043, thank you.<<After I realized it was a sales call, I called iPayment and spoke with MaryAnn in customer service who told me there was nothing she could do about it without a last name. I called the number Sara gave me to obtain Phil's last name but, he hung up on me. I asked MaryAnn why she couldn't help me even though I did not have a last name and she said she couldn't. This is probably with worst experience I have ever had with a company trying to obtain customers. I am confused as to why a company with this many complaints still carries an A+ rating with the BBB.
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This is the worst payment processing company I’ve ever dealt with. They will use every single excuse they can find to hold your money before releasing the batch. (If you have to run a credit and the customer uses a different card for example. This will provoke them to hold the entire batch even if the credit was for $20 and you did $5000 in sales that day) This is just one of fun examples. Not sure why my sales person thought it was a good idea to switch, but in comparison to my current provider, and the 2 I had before them; run away as fast as you can.
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iPayment inc. bought my account and I was forced by SBGA to use them.
With that said their customer service / partnership is without a doubt, the worst I have ever dealt with!
The cavalier attitude with which they run their business not to mention the monosyllabic answers to any and all inquiries is appalling. Fees aside they are just an embarrassment to the industry.
When I signed my contract we agreed on a 40,000 per month limit. I had one and only one transaction with them. It was a charge for 8611.00 which was approved and later I was informed the funds are on hold because I exceeded my limit? I told them that I have on average four transactions a month so how is 8611.00 exceeding my limit. They could not wrap their heads around so few transactions and proceeded to tell me they need to speak to my client. I gave them all the contact information and waited another week. I then received an e-mail informing me they had left several messages for the client. I spoke to the client and she said they never called, text or other. Luckily my client is also a client of my wife, so I had her come back to my store so we could talk to them on a conference call. I called the gentleman handling my issue and got a voicemail, called two other times and received the same voicemail. I than called customer service and demanded to speak to a supervisor he stayed my representative was out to lunch and my customer would have to wait again for a return call from him. At that point I Fired them as a processor, issued a credit and had the client give me a check. I had no idea there would be a 350.00 cancellation fee, I have yet to find it in the contract!
Needless to say … run don’t walk away!
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If I can give a “0” I would. Ok service, but they steal your money with this, and that, and regulations that my company needed to do (when I tried to comply, it took me a long time and they say “it did not register so I had to pay $64 monthly for several months not being compliant). Their sale pitch is “our percentage rates are the best”. They might be, but they steal your money in another way. By the end of the month, they take in more of your money (many time more) that higher percentage rates (such as square would take). Watch out, they are woofs, they will eat you alive.
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In answer to another comment left, yes it is illegal. You can report them to the
FTC as well as the Attorney General office. There is a list of many places to report them to on the internet.
I for will be making it my mission to see that someone pays attention to their fraudulent practices. They have held my account hostage even though my bank told them it was not
anything that they did, that it was an issue on IPayments end. This has happened twice with
countless hours of trying to get it all worked out.
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After holding funds do they release them or hold your funds hostage forever isn’t this illegal
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Hi Irene,
Most processing contracts contain a provision that allows the processor to hold funds for up to about 180 days if they believe there is a risk that the charge could be disputed – and potentially longer if the charge is disputed after a long delay. It depends on the specifics of the transaction(s) in question. Generally, however, funds that are not disputed by the customer won’t be held more than 90 days on suspicion. No processor has the right to indefinitely withhold funds.
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Worst company I’ve ever used. This company is in the business of gouging fees out of it’s customers and not in the business of enabling merchants to participate in the market place. From high monthly cost, yearly fees, and a cancellation fee, this place is shit. Go with Paypal.
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I signed up for a new account with them and my avg transaction amount was $500, monthly amount $50,000. I processed a $5 transaction on my own credit card to test the system and one $1,000 transaction and 2 $500 in one week. They shut me down and are holding the funds. This makes no sense. I even provided them with invoices. They are very linear thinkers in risk management and do not comprehend innovation or creativity. If anybody else gets a temporary hold from these crooks, do not provide too much information. Provide them what they expect to hear. The truth is inconsequential to these people. If you are a Spa and you also sell healthy beverages, don’t mention the beverages. You are just a spa. If you are a mechanic’s shop, you are just a mechanic. If you have gift cards for your shop, don’t mention that. You fix cars. PERIOD.
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Did the eventually release your fund
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zero starsTerrible customer service, basically we don’t give a sh….t type of an attitude. I had a cold call from one of the outside sales reps they work with . I have to say, I am not usually take those calls, as I am pretty happy with my current situation, but this call intrigued me and I agreed to have a rep come in and talk to me. Long story short- he promised me an arm and a leg and I think his mother and I decide to give it a try. Wrong decision. He had promised me a free terminal ( had one and didn’t have any interest to pay for another one), much lower charges (got my attention), no monthly fees(ok), and so on, you get the picture.As soon as I signed agreement I received terminal with bill of $764 to be payed, and some other charges for the account in place. I had returned the monthly bill with “cancel “note.I had never activate my account, never once used it for any transaction, in my mind it was never activated, because we had no transactions.Little did I know I have been charged $28.60 every month, it had (– )in front of the charge and I was thinking its some time of credit ( i should of call to find out, but i didn’t at that time). Small business owner, no time to follow up on small transactions ( my mistake). This month i got a bill for $68.64 with (– )in front, calling to see if I get a credit for this amount coming to me only to find out I have been charged for 18 month for total of just under $800, not one transaction had been made. NOW its a large sum of money. WOW.I call to ask them how is this possible, and they said you have a contract, but I never activate this account, “you signed” was my respond. I am canceling this agreement and I hope they will not give me any trouble, as I had the rep put a disclosure that there will not be any charges to cancel.This is not over, will keep you posted as how it went on.So far very bad experience.P.S. Should’ve read reviews before signing or even making an appointment to see him. Another lesson learned.
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I have the same issue. Thought I had cancelled the service only to find $118 per month being withdrawn from the checking account at tax time. I called customer relations and he said “when you pay for cable TV and don’t watch it you still have to pay”. We had zero transactions and still would not issue credit. Not much for customer relations. Still not finished pursing reimbursement. When I stopped their service my new one was 50% less.
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Risky company to do business with! You’ll be fine if there aren’t any problems, but as soon as you have an issue, don’t expect and help from them! I’ve been a customer with ipayment for years but will be switching now. My account coasted by on autobatch settle for years, but somehow the batching stopped. No notification, early warning system, no catch safe to make sure that when a card is swiped, the money will actually get transferred. Customer service is terrible. Company will not accept any responsibility for mistakes and places all blame squarely on shoulder of customer. What is a processing company good for if they can’t make sure the money is getting transferred from one account to another when a card is swiped?
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I STARTED TO RANT ABOUT THE LACK OF CUSTOMER SERVICE THIS COMPANY HAS..
BUT ALL I CAN DO IS SHAKE MY HEAD AND WONDER HOW THEY ARE STILL IN BUSINESS..
STARS… ??? THEY HAVE GONE OUT
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Guess I’m forced to give one star and that’s 5 too many. Another thief dressed up as a legitimate company. Service is wonderful until you sign up then it’s so bad, I would have settled for lackluster. Fortunately they cancelled my account (because they never bothered to check what was happening with it) without any notification.Total bunch of losers. Avoid them.
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One star is way to high. This company needs negative stars of at least 5, since they are guilty of fraudulent overcharges for 9 months after cancellation, all with no CC amounts submitted. When we asked for a refund of the $404.50 charged to our bank, their representative “KATHY” just ignored our emails and phone calls.If you would like to hear more of why we cancelled after almost 20 years with them (and switched to E Commerce Solutions at no restrictions on sales amounts AND less than 1/2 the fees charged) call me at 802-442-7158. ask for Bruce
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I’d give no stars if I could! This company refused to process a client’s card because they said the charge was over my limits, yet they have been holding the money, so the charge has not only appeared on my client’s credit card statement, they also charged me fees on it. To make matters worse, Steven Graham, their employee has refused to credit me back for the fees because he said “you threatened to dispute the charges”! Worst company EVER, bordering on fraudulent!
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Ipayment is the worst company I have ever worked with. I sell horses and they would not release my money until the horse is delivered to the buyer residents. I thought you have to pay for something before they get it. NEVER USE THIS COMPANY THE WORST COMPANY EVERY
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I feel so grateful to have read some of this outfit’s reviews before I got in too deep. I only lost about100 bucks and feel so sad for other folks. I started a Facebook page for other victims to share their stories. Come on over!
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WARNING: If you are thinking about this vendor as a CC processor, I am warning you that you are better off NOT taking credit cards at all. Listen, we can all bitch and I am sure there are 2 or 3 people that love ipayment but the reviews and the BBB and the 50,000 pages on google for IPAYMENT FRAUD / SCAM speak for themselves. Good thing is that they are an equal opportunity F*@$#KER and it does not matter if your revenue is $1 or $10,000 per month……bottom line is this company will woo you in and then KEEP your money. You are better off paying the bank you hate whatever rate they want. At least they are accountable. These thieves point fingers at everyone but themselves. Again, if I researched this for one minute I WOULD have never gone forward with them. As excruciatingly painful as it is, I know a principal of this company and for the life of me would have never thought I would be wating my f’ing time writing crap like this. Bottom line….your company is worth more. There is nothing in the world IPAYMENT can offer you that you cannot do better going to your bank or anyone else who has a conscious. If you DONT want the money you worked for and just want a bunch of suits to hold it and give you excuses, this is the BEST company for you.
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Just found out they held 10k because I have gone over my limit substantially. Our business doing good apparently puts them at risk. I thought I had done my research on a creditable company to use, obviously I did not. The soonest I will see MY money is 30 days and something tells me it will be longer. Choose your company more wisely than I did.
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Here’s the thing.. if you get pulled into this company with 409 terrible BBB reviews, and thousands of bad reviews on countless other sites..what can I say, you have it coming. There is no reason to ever do business with anyone without a little research first.I used this company many years ago when they were just getting started, and they are still pulling the same tricks to this very day. READ THIS – you do not need iPayment or any other similar company to process payments. As of December 2014 there are much better options such as Square, PayPal Mobile, GoPayment, etc. that do not have any of the same business practices as iPayment. Put simply, this company is nothing more than a huge joke and a pure scam in every aspect. What does amaze me is how many officials they have paid off to remain in business. ipayment is not a legitimate business by any means, and they are well aware of it.
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Do not use it !!!They are very bed..Holding funds without reason…..
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Ipayment inc Placed my accounts on the Terminated Merchant File (MATCH) claiming i broke mastercard rules solely because they were notified i was not Microsoft Authorized. Mr Cohen, of Ipayments possibly inept legal department, told me that they would ignore any evidence of my authorization BUT any evidence of my authorization has to be obtained by me and given to them.. HUH? So I have to prove to you i am authorized but you will not recognize anything i give you showing i am authorized.You are asking me to go above an beyond any company in the world has had to go to gain authorization. Not even Microsoft gives this much issue reselling their items.I sent Mr Cohen directly to Microsoft’s “How to be a license reseller” and it clearly states sign up for the Microsoft Partner Program. I then sent him a link to the Microsoft Partner program License which states we can sell Microsoft technologies. He then claims i could have gotten that from anywhere. Alleged Ignorance is bliss when it comes to Mr Cohen and his way of doing law.I offered to Pay for his time to show him how he can become authorized. I gave him my Microsoft credentials so he could log into my own account and review my license agreement with Microsoft.. Mr. Cohen is actively trying to deny any request or evidence and do any due diligence. He also expressed that until his contact from microsoft contacts him and says differently, they will not remove me from match. He will also not supply the info MS has given him and who at microsoft contacted him.. SO again. Mr Cohen is actively trying to prevent me from gaining the proper information he knows will satisfy his legal issues. Ethics left his plate long ago.
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Terrible customer service. I worked with iPay corporate, not a franchise.With them for 1 year with no chargebacks or disputes. They charged us double for a large transaction, couldn’t get it refunded.We wanted to run a larger transaction (smaller than some that were approved in the past) they stated that if we chose to run the transaction that they would hold the funds for 6 MONTHS! We have been growing and started to invoice larger amounts, when we tried to increase the size limits, we were denied without investigation. Don’t do business with them, we made a terrible decision when we went with them.
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Worse merchant processing company. Terminated our account without any notice. Held over $50K without even a sign of releasing any funds. Digging into our account additionally and withdrawing funds randomly – 2K yesterday, 6K today and on. Stay away for your own safety.
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Just found out about the $35 per month non-compliance fee and also $6.95 for a paper statement mailed out to me as well as $14.95 for online access to MY OWN ACCOUNT! Not even banks charge for this. This is ludicrous along with their rates which are horrible. Wish I didn’t even have to give them one star.
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This service is a scam! Run away from this company. Google Scam reports on this company and do you homework. I was a victim, they took my personal and business information. [Name Removed] (service rep.) Promised me the best rates and never delivered. Instead this company authorized fraudulent charges and gave my personal information to two companies without my consent. I also received a copy of a contract from iPayment, inc. with a forged signature and my business information.
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This company is dishonest! They promised us that if we switched cc processers that we would be reimbursed for the cancelation fee. [Name Removed] is who we have dealt with during the entire process of switching. The cancelation fee was $495.00. Not a small amount. Excuse after excuse has been provided to for the refund not happening. Today Jessica claims she wasn’t aware of how everything worked. Do not do business with them! I am really worried now after reading all the comments above. I plan to file a complaint with the BBB.
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These people aren’t even deserving of 1 star. Because I charged $100 more than my quota they decided to steal my money! Our company has been doing business with them for nearly 10 years and because of this $100 extra (sorry for having a better sales month) they decided to take 5k of my hard earned money, because I was deemed a risk, because of the extra $100. EVERYONE gave me the run around. I provided ALL the information they requested and continued to receive run around. “Oh you didn’t submit tracking information.” Uh, yes, yes, I did! “Oh, well you didn’t submit your client’s phone numbers.” Uh, yes, yes I did! They never plan to release my money. They have all the info they need, but still won’t do it. Stay away from these thieves!
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This is the absolute worst company you can possibly choose to process your credit card transactions. On a scale of 1 – 10 with one being the worst, I give them a minus 20. Gabby has no customer service skills and if she worked for me, I would have fired her on her first day.
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Worst company ever, period.Briefly: IPayment Inc. is an online merchant service provider that I agreed to use to allow me to process credit card payments on my website. They have taken $920 of funds that my customers paid me for my services and refuse to release them to me.They literally have stolen money from my own customers. I started using them as a gateway provider for my Authorize.net account so that I could accept credit card payments on my website. I started noticing a problem after a few days. I had several customers purchase products from my site, but no money was being deposited into my account. They kept telling me to wait another day and it would come, that everything was good and I needed to be patient. I gave it some time, about a week, figuring it must take some time to get up and running, but nope, no money. So I e-mailed my rep (3 times), no response. Then I started calling. They told me there was an issue with the voided check that I sent them. They never bothered to tell me this before. So I rush ordered some new checks as the one I had given them was my last one. Got the checks and sent them over. Called to verify. They then claimed the check I sent was not good enough and that I’d have to get a banker to write a letter for them with the account information. I went to the bank and got the letter. I had the bank fax it and I even had the banker speak with an Ipayment rep. To be safe I e-mailed and faxed the letter and my check myself. I called to verify and was told “Yes, everything looks good; you should receive your money in 1 to 2 business days”. Well, needless to say, that didn’t happen. After a week still no money and no correspondence from the company so I called again. They said I didn’t receive the money because they had decided to close my account! No notification, no call, no e-mail, just shut down my credit card processing account. When I asked why they informed me because I didn’t get them the bank information. Then they said that there was a “chargeback” on one of my transactions so that’s why they closed the account. A chargeback is when a customer notifies their bank that they didn’t make the charge and it may be fraudulent. I found it odd and investigated. The customer said that on her bank statement iPayment Inc had taken the money from her account and posted it as an ATM withdrawl from Cottage Grove MN, so the customer didn’t realize that charge was for my product. I had the customer call her bank to let them know the charge was valid. I gave all this information to Ipayment but they didn’t care. They simply refuse to open my account or give the funds to me. They won’t even refund the money back to the customer! Sounds like fraud to me. My customer pays for my service, I deliver the service, and Ipayment keeps the customers money. It is obvious that this was a setup, they are trying to make me look at fault to keep money and told me that they would invest it and do “whatever they want with itâ€. There is no way that is legal.
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WORST COMPANY EVER! STAY AWAY Ipayment is the biggest fraud and scam artist I’ve ever dealt with. The worst possible customer service and they completely worked against me, and set me up. They literally have stolen money from my own customers. I started using them as a gateway provider for my Authorize.net account so that I could accept credit card payments on my website, I was so excited. When setting up my account they were very responsive to questions and quick to respond. As soon as I had signed the agreement and was setup they would no longer respond. I started noticing a problem after a few days. I had several customers purchase products from my site, but no money was being deposited into my account. I gave it some time, about a week, figuring it must take some time to get up and running, but nope, no money. So I e-mailed my rep (3 times), no response. Then I started calling. I got transferred many times but stuck with it. They told me that they couldn’t read the voided check I gave them so couldn’t process the funds. They never bothered to tell me this. So I rush ordered some new checks as the one I had given them was my last one. Got the checks and sent them over. Called to verify. They then claimed the check I sent was not good enough as it didn’t have “LLC” after the business name and that I’d have to get a banker to write a letter for them with the account information. Ridiculous, but fine, I went to the bank and got the letter. I had the bank fax it and I even had the banker speak with an Ipayment rep. To be safe I e-mailed and faxed the letter and my check myself. I called to verify and was told “Yes, everything looks good; you should receive your money in 1 to 2 business days”. Well, needless to say, that didn’t happen. Then I got a call from a customer saying my online checkout wasn’t working. I called to find out about the online checkout issue and the fact no money had been deposited into my account, even though Ipayment had processed just under $1000 worth of transactions in less than 2 weeks. They said I didn’t receive the money because they decided to close my account!! No notification, no call, no e-mail, just shut down my credit card processing account. Who knows how many customers I lost because it went down and they didn’t tell me. When I asked why they informed me because I didn’t get them the bank information. After hours on the phone explaining that I did, they then passed me to a supervisor William who was the rudest person I’ve ever talked to. He talked down to me and belittled me. He said that there was a “chargeback” on one of my transactions so that’s why they closed the account. A chargeback is when a customer notifies their bank that they didn’t make the charge and it may be fraudulent. I found it odd and investigated. The customer apologized and said she didn’t realize that charge was for my product. She said that the charge, which was a credit card charge for my product on my website through Ipayment, showed on her bank statement as an ATM withdrawal in my city. So Ipayment screwed it up. She called her bank to let them know the charge was valid. I gave all this information to Ipayment but William (or anybody else) didn’t care. They simply refuse to open my account or give the funds to me. Here’s the kicker, they won’t even refund the money back to the customer! Sounds like fraud to me. My customer pays for my service, I deliver the service, and Ipayment keeps the customers money. There is no way that is legal. Extremely rude, difficult to deal with and mean company. It is obvious they did this on purpose, they make the charges look funny so people will dispute them and then close your account and keep the money. How can they sleep at night?! What can I do???
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These guys are a complete scam, i have used them since april of 2013 and have today decided to cancel there services. Every month they charge random amounts to my bank account and alot of money for processing card transactions regardless if i process cards or not. I will not be using these guys no more and suggest anyone considering accepting credit cards as a form of payment to stay clear of this company. I Signed up through card service international site so beware of these guys as there gonna rob your bank account every chance they get.
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iPayment STOLE MY MONEY! They stole my money! I had 500 dollars in sales and then they decided to place a hold on my account because it was a new account, for 1 month. After 1 month I called them to verify they were going to finally deposit my funds, but instead they decided to close my account without telling me. Why did they close my account you ask? They closed my account because I sell smartphones. So then I made the statement, to a manager over the phone, that nowhere is that information provided before you sign up that you can’t sell smartphones and I ask for MY MONEY to be sent to me, and we would just part ways. Nope they will not give me my money and the manger just hung up on me. So beware iPayment, they are thieves and swindlers!
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DO not do business with this company! their reps lie about not having any starter fees. They sent me a bill before I even activated the account and charged a unauthorized fee on my account!! I called them immediately and canceled the service then I get a collection letter in the mail for $67. For what? I NEVER used the service . They are a rip off,,, BEWARE
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We have been working thru Authorize.net with iPayment to process our conference registrations — simply a terrible company to work with – they have been holding over 21,000 dollars of our money for over a year and every time you call they ask you for a bible thick of documents, after we confirm that they have received them, you are told that ” we get back to you — “no one calls back and we still do not have our money after a year…. Very unstable organization – employee flux (or it is a gimmick since we hear “that person no longer works here” all the time)… extremely unhappy with them and they seem to sit on your money as long as they can — we have no other options but to take legal action against them….
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i-Payment was originally used as a buck-up to my company’s primary merchant service company. As revealed in other reviews, their did not fully disclose T&C’s and information I received from their independent representative didn’t match what they later informed me (shortly after trying to cancel my first time, I called the rep and she no longer chose to represent them).The fees (and explanation behind them many times) are erroneous and they seemed to increase over time, including bogus “compliance” fees. In finally canceling, they charged me the $250 fee twice (seven weeks apart to make it harder to track) and after that, charged me a new annual fee.Their customer service is nearly non-existant and you need to jump through hoops to close your account. I own two of my own businesses and if I treated my customers the same way as i-Payment does, I’d be out of business. Quickly.
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Yes, they are one of the worst companies I have ever deal with. I never had a company that will hold your money for doing good business. After one good black Friday sale, our account was hold for inspection. After all paper works are sent and check, they come back and offer us to continue to process with them and hold 25,000.00 indefinitely! Our account is not a new account we have been with them for the past 5 years. Still today we are trying to find a fix for this problem, and the hold amount is getting larger and larger at 57,000.00 now, and our company is facing a cash flow problem due to this hold of income. We can’t agree to the hold, or close the account as they will just hold everything for 6 month. They have 0 rights for this type of hold, and are getting away with it. Any one has any way around this problem or know a good lawyer that will take on this case please let me know.
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The maximum charge limit of $1000 per transaction is ridiculous as is the monthly charge limit of only a few thousand dollars. Our software sells for $1695 plus $799 for extra licenses and our monthly volume average is $50-80k. Our money gets “held” until we can prove that the transaction was legitimate. We have been in business for 13 years and have provided bank statements to iPayments to prove our business history. After requesting a limit increase to $20,000 per transaction, iPayments changed it to $3,000 per transaction and stated that we must keep charges below the limit or they will deny the money transfer. How can we keep our charge below the cost of our software? We were told that we could not request another increase for 3 months at which time they would “consider” a slight increase in limit. They don’t seem to care what it is that we sell or how much we charge for our products or what our business history is, they simply apply this limit and tell us that we must stay within the limit or they will hold the funds and not make the transfer. If you sell anything with a significant cost or sell a high volume, don’t use iPayments.
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iPayment is a SCAM. Charges to my account on weekends so I have to wait until Monday to get to the bank to dispute the charges. My bank blocks them and they change their name slightly just so they can make fraudulent CHARGES! tHE EVEN CHARGE ME FOR NOT RETURNING A TERMINAL i DId NOT RECEIVE
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!!! I cannot stress this enough. I used them for 4 years and every month I had to go through the statement with a fine tooth comb for erroneous charges. Then you have to take your time to call the company to have the charges credited. In the meantime, they have been using your money. Their fees pop up from nowhere. Even after cancelling their service 2 months ago, they continue to charge my bank account. I am in the process of filing a BBB complaint against them. And I’m not the first. Check out BBB…they have A LOT of complaints filed against them. Do your due diligence…check them out. The have a huge PCI compliance fee that they charge every year and even if they agree to reduce it for you, you have to call them every time. Warning: STAY AWAY. There are much better cc processing companies out there!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I would never recommend anyone to go thru what I experienced, night mare!
They kept charging to your checking account after they agree that I’ve closed the account and paid my fee. Then, 2 months later they charged my account again and when I called they said that should be the last charge. Then 2 months after that they charged me $119 for yearly fee (4 months after I closed the account!). When I called them back [edit: name removed] (they wouldn’t give you their last name or id no. either) told me that it would be the last time. They refused to put it in writing and said that I should have read the contract before I sign any paper. She said it should not be any more charge but there’s no guaranty! They both were very rude and refused to let me talk to the supervisor. Stay a way from this company!!! I am now using “Square Up”so far so good.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
This company should not be allowed to be in business. I got duped by seeing something that said, “see if your online business can take credit cards.” They approved me the day after completing an online application. But did not mail anything to my house until a couple weeks later. Most of their information was on this mysterious CD that I never looked at. Review their statement, it was unclear that I would be charged $25 for just having the service, plus $5 to receive a statement. I cancelled the service after 6 weeks. Now, three months after cancelling I was hit with a $64.50 PCI compliance charge. I inquired about this, they said it was in my contract. I asked them to send me a copy. It only states that the charge will be accessed annually. Another woman told me the schedule of fees was on the disk that was mailed to me. I asked her to break down the charge for me and she said it was prorated from $129 annually. I told her that is only $10.75 a month so I should be charged $21.50 max. She said she would put in a ticket for my refund, but we’ll see how that goes. This has got to be the shadiest business I’ve ever seen. They have taken over $100 of my money for six weeks and I never even used the service. DO NOT USE I-PAYMENT. And can someone explain how their rating is so high on this site when I only see negative complaints? Has anyone ever gotten a refund. In about two weeks, I’m going to just close the account, because I feel they are going to keep charging my account when I least expect it.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Strongly urge anyone looking to stay away from iPayment – I have experienced much of the issues others have described here including forgery of contract documentation, treating your business account like their personal ATM, rolling bank debit names to get around blocked bank accounts, undocumented PCI compliance charges and a false PCI certificate to boot. I am happy to furnish actual eveidence of all this to anyone interested via the email above. Perhaps the new consumer agency in DC will finally shut their operation down.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
after 3 days of open the account this people hold the money because you have a decline card and their policy said if you have a decline card that is a red flag. please people read this before you buy. be careful with this merchant also they and have the worst customer service ever. the risk management people are so rude….. they talk to you like you are a criminal.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
They have poor customer service and they are nonresponsive to requests, and their reps have attitude. They couldn’t careless about customer service once they have your money on hold. They are withholding our funds from us without notice. It seems like they make this their practice to withhold merchant funds for as long as they can interest free. I wish I could have googled their reviews before my processor signed me up with them. What an aweful company and way to do business!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I had a very bad experience with I Payment. At contracting time, the company made is like paradise and showed the service as provided against a fisxed monthly fee. Once signed, it showed that a third party gateway is required and receives another monthly fee. I Payment and the gateway provider still receive percentage of the collected money separately. After a while, I Payment charged my account an unusual value, doubled the ame after a month and again the third month. When I asked, I payment staff informed me that the charges are penalties because I did not fill up a questionnaire !!!!
I cancelled the service to stop that nonstop unjustified charge.
Finally, and without any justification, I Payment charged me $350.00 as a cancellation fee even though the only value that I collected through the service did not exceed $900.00. all lost through I Payment unusual charges.
I adviced all those I know not to deal with this company and shall tell the media with evidence that this company is not good for any thing at all but taking people’s money. We work hard for every dollar and it is really painfull to see it run away to somebody else’s account.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Absolutly,not recomendable company to make bussines,they charge too many hide fees,take money without autorization,and even if you not get suficients founds in your account,they charge in diferent days the monthly commision,the costumer service is terrible,please read this before of any process,I don’t recomendet this company,please be sure about of your contracts,or you lose your bussines.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hello every one I have a problem with ipayment services an i wished that i checked on ther background before i took on there sevices please if you start an buiness dont get the first merchant service that calls you please check on there ratings first Ive learned the hard way an now I carefully watch what i do a lot more because there out there to take all your money an tell you the truth ipayment took all the money I put in the bank that month an that is awfull these large company cant tell there doing this to them because there wealth an Im gonna put this in the news paper about them because its not right
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Ipayment started charging my banking account values started with $32.99 first month then 64.99 second month and 158.99 third month without any kind of contact or notice. I discussed the issue with my bank and they could communicate with IPayment where the customer services insisted that they had sent me a notice to fill a kind of an online questionnaire, that I haven’t seen at all. the monthly douplicating obviously shows an intentional unjustified charge. When I she could not satisfy me inquiry, I informed her that I want to cancel the service, but again she told me that I cannot cancel over the phone and I need to send a Fax of that meaning.
I sent the order as per her advice, but again, I haven’t received confirmation of action, to leave me worried that additional values may be charged to my account without a notice.
Very bad customer service, and unsecured charges to businesses.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Scam company never set me up with equipment. They kept raising their monthly fees via compliance fees. There is no customer services at all. I had an account for three months never used it due to no customer service help and am now charged a $350 cancellation fee which they did an ach to my checking account to get, I didn’t receive a notice at all. Going to fight it at the banks level there is no use in calling I payment.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
The beginning when I signed onto Ipayment, I had a contract and a woman who said my rate will be .55% with NO interchange rate. This was hard to believe in the beginning so I asked ‘Are you sure?’ YES, was the response. She even crossed out the interchange rate on the contract. I signed and got my machine with no instructions or anything. I started putting charges on it and I get hit with a fee for PCI Compliance charge $129 dollars. I found out that PCI Compliance charge is a complete bogus and it’s to raise Ipayment’s profit margin. Then I was hit with $25 because no one told me I had to go and do this PCI compliance thing. I’ve been in the business for 15 years and using credit cards for 15 years as well and NOT ONE TIME do I need to fill out some PCI compliance form and charge an annual MAINTENANCE FEE, which was crossed out as well on my application, but IPayment would not honor the refund, they said it’s a mandatory fee! Then I was hit with an overlimit fee of $461 when my total card charges were $450. I am completely livid because it does not state in my contract of any fee and I specifically asked the customer service woman if i will be charged an overlimit fee if i go over my monthly limit. She said no, so i signed the contract. I then increased my monthly limit (which was unheard of, credit card companies LOVE when we go over our monthly limit, more money for them) but then YET AGAIN! I was charged a $547 overlimit fee. They would not refund that fee EITHER! So I cancelled IPayment and went with First data. Today, I found out that IPayment charged me $350 cancellation fee. I called and said my application specifically states ‘NO CANCELLATION FEE’.. The woman on the phone was VERY VERY unpleasant and she wound up Hanging up on me. I would never EVER recommend IPayment to ANYONE!
They are a complete fraud and a disappointment.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I can vouch for everything Anna said above except the over limit fee (I didn’t have that, yet). However, the compliance maintenance fee, PCI compliance forms, and $350 cancellation fee are real. My contract also said “No early cancellation fee”. I called the customer service line and stated that fact, calling out the page and place on the page. The customer service rep pulled my contract and said, indeed, I was correct. HOWEVER, I was informed that it can take 10 to 15 days to process the refund. Mind you, this was THEIR error. I believe that is robbery by most definitions. This will keep me from doing business that needs to be done until they decide to put back MY money.
I would not recommend iPayment.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Exactly the same thing happened to me. I ended up closing my accounts so this Ipayment will stop making unknown charges. They dried my account up to $5,000 in ridiculous charges for only a period of one year.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
WOW, what a company. I had a customer purchase an item off of my website for 2500.00. For over a week they kept telling me that they needed to verify the charge with the customer, I was ok with that for security reasons. They said once they verified the charge with the customer then they would release the money so that I could ship the merchandise out. After my customer getting frustrated with the situation, He had called in several times to iPayment demanding that they release the money so that I could ship his product out. What a nightmare! The risk department lied to me several times and no body there could get their story straight. Even after the customer had called in several times to verify the transaction, iPayment decided that they were not going to release the funds until the customer had actually received the product. I told them at this point I do not trust iPayment to release the funds to me even after the customer had received the product. I ended up canceling the transaction and running it through my other merchant account to complete it. I have never seen a business run like this.. EVER! If you are thinking about using iPayment who is one of the processing companies used by Flagship Merchant Services… RUN AWAY FAST! Flagship is a great company to work with and my rep has been great through this process. If you sign up through Flagship, DO NOT LET THEM PUT YOU WITH iPayment.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I started an acct in (Jan?) based upon pos rankings online and the salesman. I thought I knew what to expect in terms of fees. To my knowledge, the cc%’s were as explained, and so was the Authorize.net monthly fee. The ipayment/merchant services monthly fees were debited from my bank acct and were at least double what I was told, then it increased because of “non-compliance” fees… there’s something in small writing on the paper statement indicating that an online form must be completed or the penalty will be applied every month (like $20). They got me with about 3 of those before I realized.
I called to cancel in early April after last recent transactions cleared. I was told they were going to close my acct. Shame on me, I didn’t demand proof. Since, they’ve continued debiting my acct the non-compliance fee, reg monthly fees and the last charge was $141- no idea why.
I called again 6/4 and was told the acct wasn’t closed. The cust svc person submitted a refund request & emailed me a form & I faxed back same day.
Called again today- 6/11 and acct still not closed. Cust svc rep indicated it was submitted 6/7 and could take 30 days, AND that “management” had only approved a $20 refund. Wow! Now I’m afraid they’ll debit my acct some huge cancellation fee (I was told there was NO cancel fee- “cancel anytime”). I’m going to close the bank acct on Monday.
I felt sorry for the lady I spoke with today. I can’t imagine they last long- who could? It’s clearly a SHADY company. I’m going to share my opinion everywhere.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I have since contacted the Office of Associate Chief Counsel (Procedure & Administration) in DC and they were quite surprised to hear that the Merchant Account Servicer (IPayment) is passing on the charges to implement Section 6050W of the Housing Assistance Tax Act of 2008 which requires them to report gross sales. Chief Counsel analogized this to an employer charges an employee to produce a W2 for them. Chief Council is now researching this astonishing behavior and holding a discussion among the administration within this controlling office of the IRS. I am now going to call [name removed] who you have stated wants merchants to call him before filing a report. Chief Council has asked me if I would be willing to inform him of the outcome of this conversation to use in his research and discussion with other Council to determine how to proceed with this angle that has come to light.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
IPayment doesn’t make an effort to inform and forewarn of fees. They charged me $14.95 on a statement and I had to call to find out that they sent a letter (which I didn’t receive) stating that I could now have IAccess to my account on line for $14.95. If I didn’t want it I needed to opt out of it. Who does that? How can I opt out of something I don’t know I’ve been automatically signed up for. I should make the choice of IAccess, not them. And then to charge $14.95 a month. Credit card companies don’t charge to see your account online. So on my paper statement they say they are going to charge me $25.00 to verify my TIN, in other words my social security number (another rip off) and then $4.95 for….well I don’t know for what. They make some reference to the Housing Assistance Act (?) and monetary processing. And I have 30 days to opt out. The catch is that I received my statement on March 14, 2011 which only leaves 2 weeks, not the 30 days necessary to close out my account which is what I am now going to do since I feel the collective consciousness of this organization is shoddy and unethical. After speaking with someone named [name removed] who said I was speaking with the supervisor (when I asked to speak with his supervisor) it was clear that customer service, clear communication, and honorable business relationships are not important to IPayment. This all came about today, and I have been searching for some law they must be breaking by this kind of practice, but it’s really disheartening to try to run a small business and feel like the people you are giving your business to are swindling you by seeing how much information they can keep from you. Thanks for listening!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.