Total Merchant Services Review
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- Date Established
- 1996
- Location
- Woodland Hills, CA
Pros
- Free credit card terminal and readers
- Free mobile processing app
- Free point of sale software (including gateway/virtual terminal)
Cons
- Early termination fee
- Numerous public complaints
- Deceptive sales tactics
- Deceptive advertising
- No pricing disclosed online
- Use of independent sales agents leading to lack of accountability
- No contract disclosed online
Overview
Total Merchant Services (TMS) is a merchant account provider headquartered in Woodland Hills, California. Founded in 1996, TMS is one of the more established companies in the processing business. It’s also one of the larger companies in the industry, having serviced about 500,000 merchants since its founding.
Since our last review in 2017, TMS was bought out by North American Bancard (NAB). As a result, there have been quite a few changes as NAB integrated its other businesses into TMS’s offerings. For instance, the free hardware from TMS now comes from PayAnywhere, and one of the gateway providers is Velocity. NAB owns both of these companies.
Bigger isn’t always better, however. TMS seems to have always contracted with third parties on different aspects of payment card processing, bundled these services into packages and then sold the packaged services to merchants through independent sales agents (i.e., more contractors). Under this business model, quality control is always an issue because it is extremely difficult to control the details of what your contractors do or say. While the sale to NAB brought many of TMS’s services in-house, from customer complaints on various websites, we continue to see issues with these services.
Notably, it is clear from customer complaints that TMS continues to suffer from an over-reliance on independent sales agents, many of whom are poorly-trained or downright unethical — or both. Compared to in-house sales departments, independent sales agents are under more pressure to close the deal with a prospective merchant, as their paycheck depends almost entirely on it. TMS manages to make a bad problem even worse by actively recruiting independent agents to work for them, offering a recruiting website that’s more informative than its main site. (Technically, the recruiting site is for recruiting NAB sales agents, but the TMS site links to it.)
When independent sales agents over promise and under deliver, you tend to see a lot of customer complaints. That is the case with TMS, which has an abnormally high number of complaints with the BBB and other review websites. While TMS has made an effort to address and resolve each complaint since the NAB buyout, at the end of the day, customer service is rarely the root of the problem — they merely try to solve the problems created by other departments/contractors of the company.
With TMS, it seems the problems run deep. Many complaints involve the early termination fee, which TMS in the past claimed it had eliminated, but that claim is no longer on its website.
TMS does not publish any rates on its website. It merely claims that it has “the best credit card processing rates in the industry.” To find out what those rates might be, you will have to contact TMS and would likely have to deal with an independent sales agent.
TMS’s questionable sales force (to be addressed in more detail later) is a serious concern, and the unusually high complaint volume is an indicator that something is wrong. This hasn’t changed since our last review. For these reasons, our score for TMS remains at a very average 3 out of 5 stars. The company will have to show some huge improvements to receive a higher rating in future review updates.
Final Note: If you do a Google search for Total Merchant Services, you’ll notice a large number of other sites heavily branded with the TMS logo that appear to be official, but most of those sites are actually set up by individual sales agents of TMS. Don’t be fooled. The official domain for TMS is www.totalmerchantservices.com.
Table of Contents
Products & Services
TMS offers a pretty broad selection of products and services for payment card processing and more, flexibly designed for businesses of all sizes. These products and services include:
- Merchant Accounts: Credit/debit card processing is done through one of three processors, including Global Payments and NAB’s own EPX. The charges are not disclosed, and, from the sales agent website, this appears to be deliberate, so the agents can have the greatest flexibility to negotiate with you to bring you in as a new account. (All the agent has to do is beat your existing price, not necessarily give you the lowest price they can offer.) From the agent’s website, it does appear that flat-rate pricing is available. Whether flat-rate pricing is right for your business, however, depends on several factors, such as your volume and your average transaction size. We have an article on processing rates and fees if you wish to have a quick refresher.
- “Free” Terminal/Mobile Reader: TMS offers an assortment of free hardware. It’s a little vague on what “free” means — a majority of its free hardware is PayAnywhere hardware, and we know that PayAnywhere only offers “free placement.” The “free placement,” in turn, means that it is just a zero-dollar lease such that you’ll have to return the hardware when you terminate your processing agreement with TMS. TMS also has free countertop terminals from Ingenico and Verifone, and both brands support magstripe, EMV, and NFC and include a PIN pad. Even though the TMS website calls these “free” devices, from reviewing customer complaints, we believe these are zero-dollar leases as well. So when you end your processing agreement and if you don’t return the terminal in pristine condition, you will likely get charged for the hardware, as per standard industry practice. We don’t like terminal leases because you’re almost always better off just buying the terminal outright. Not only that, there are a fair number of complaints about how poorly managed the return process (via FedEx) is. Learn more about terminal leases here.
- Point Of Sale: TMS offers several POS systems, with most, if not all, of them available for free. Since the NAB purchase, the primary POS system offered by TMS is the PayAnywhere system. The system appears to be quite good and certainly has the features of a top-of-the-line POS system in the marketplace today. TMS offers a second POS system from MICROS that is specifically designed for the hospitality industry. It’s unclear if this system is provided for free, and there’s very little information on the main TMS website about the system (more information can be found on the sales agent site). Lastly — and this seems like a legacy system — TMS continues to support Groovv POS, which was the primary POS that TMS offered before the NAB purchase.
- Payment Gateway: The TMS payment gateway offers a virtual terminal, recurring billing, hosted pay page, and integration with your website’s shopping cart. In the back end, the gateway is hosted by either of the two NAB-owned gateways — Velocity or Inovio. From the TMS support page, it seems that TMS also supports the Authorize.Net gateway. In other words, you’ll have choices if you decide you need a gateway. The gateways are offered for a “low price,” so be sure to ask about the cost if you’re considering TMS as your processor. Note that other processors offer gateways for free.
- Mobile Processing: TMS offers the full suite of PayAnywhere mobile processing, including readers, apps, and an online portal. This is a full-featured mPOS suite, and you can read more about it in our PayAnywhere review. The readers are free, and if you read the webpage carefully, certain portions of the online portal are free. The portal has added inventory and management functionality, however, and it’s unclear if these are free as well — be sure to ask your salesperson about the charges and, if they claim the functionalities are free, make sure they write this down on your application. Note that the portal comes with a gateway, which may or may not be free. Ask your salesperson to make sure!
- Loyalty/Gift Card Services: TMS can help you print and manage gift cards as well as customer loyalty programs. With the loyalty program, you can offer rewards/points, buyer clubs, and straight discounts or rebates on purchases. This value-added program is available for an additional fee.
- Cash Advances: These can be a powerful tool for merchants or a dangerous one. It acts as a loan from your processor that’s repaid through a portion of your daily credit card sales and automatically deducted from your merchant account. It’s not for everyone, but it can be beneficial under some circumstances. Check out our guide on how to get a good deal on a cash advance.
- Transaction Reporting & Product Warranty Through Payments Hub: Payments Hub is an online portal that offers a product warranty for your processing equipment (but why would you need a warranty for free equipment?), automatic supply shipping, payment card transaction data/analysis, and a virtual terminal (this is the third virtual terminal you can get through TMS through various sale packages, some for free and some for a fee). Payments Hub is not free. You are automatically signed up for 60 days unless you cancel, so be sure you understand the fee or cancel before TMS starts to charge you.
- Payments Hub Insights: The Payments Hub portal can also help you analyze sales/customer data based on your location, monitor online reviews of your products and services, and track your competitors’ marketing activities. All for an extra fee, of course.
As a final note, TMS claims it is also available in Canada, but the link on the TMS website to the Canadian website does not work. An internet search reveals that there appears to be a Canadian payment card wholesaler who carries TMS services, but that information is only available on this wholesaler’s Facebook page. TMS is not mentioned on the wholesaler’s website. In other words, TMS’s claim of a Canadian service is confusing and detracts from its credibility as a company.
Fees & Rates
Unfortunately, Total Merchant Services doesn’t offer any information about pricing beyond claims of “low” and “affordable” rates. If you go on the recruiting website for its independent sales agents, you’ll see that TMS offers all sorts of pricing structures, including a flat-fee structure. However, even that website discloses very little — which makes sense because TMS wants its sales agents to have flexibility in negotiating the actual rates without always having to give the lowest rates.
There are three payment processors TMS works through, including EPX, which is wholly owned by NAB. This suggests that TMS has a great deal of flexibility in negotiating its rates and fees and probably can offer merchants a variety of fee structures, from flat fees to interchange-plus to tiered pricing. We, therefore, suspect that it can indeed match or beat your existing processor’s rates most of the time. Ultimately, though, TMS won’t be interested in giving you the lowest rates from the start. So if you decide to talk to TMS, go through its fees and rates carefully, making sure that the rates and fees offered to you are written down so that the sales agent can’t back out of the offer. But also keep in mind that you can get clearly stated rates and fees, great deals on hardware, and month-to-month agreements from any of our top-rated processors instead.
Sales & Advertising Transparency
Other than terms such as “the best credit card processing rates in the industry” on the TMS website, TMS does not disclose its prices online. Instead, it uses a nation-wide network of independent sellers to sell its services, and you must contact TMS sales to get a quote for your business. We at Merchant Maverick do not like either practice.
Independent sales agents don’t get paid unless they make a sale, which tends to breed dishonest sales practices. While we are sure there are ethical and knowledgeable independent sellers out there, many others are desperate for a sale. They’ll promise you the world to get you to sign that piece of paper or hit “I Agree” on that electronic form. Once you’re locked into a contract, it’s no longer their problem. We see a lot of complaints about agents who sign people up and then disappear into the wind never again to return a phone call and a fair number about agents who pushed people into signing agreements before they even fully understood what they were agreeing to. So do your research, and don’t let anyone push you into something you aren’t sure of.
TMS does try to take care of its independent sales agents. Part of this is not to reveal pricing on its website, thereby giving agents the greatest amount of flexibility in offering you a better deal while still maximizing the agent’s profit. TMS also offers its sales agents a bonus of up to $1,000 with $400 upfront for signing up a new merchant to the PayAnywhere service. This might be good for the agent, but it is not necessarily good for you, the merchant. Since we at Merchant Maverick write for merchants, this sort of sales tactic and lack of advertising transparency does affect a company’s review score.
TMS offers many ways for its sales agents to bring in new accounts aggressively. From the agent website, one way to help merchants switch to TMS is to reimburse the merchant any early termination fees from their existing processor. There’s no information on whether there’s an upper limit to the reimbursement. If you are offered this program, be sure to set the numbers out clearly, so you don’t end up paying anything extra out of pocket.
We want to point out something that we see in customer complaints but do not see on the TMS website: the “free” equipment that you’ll get from signing up but that likely aren’t actually free — once you stop processing payments through TMS, there’s a time limit by which you must return the equipment, or you might get charged for it. We couldn’t find any sort of disclosure on the TMS website, so be sure to look for the details in the contract or ask your sales agent so that you know what you must do to return the equipment.
Something that usually indicates how well a company is performing is how active its press page and blog are. There are no dates to the blogs, so we don’t know how often new materials are added. As to the press page, there’s some activity, but not anything typical of a growing company that puts out press releases on new products or increased sales. There are a handful of articles written by NAB executives published in various smaller presses for each of the past few years. Given that in our last review, we called out that there was no new news for four years, at least TMS/NAB is trying to be more active on this front, which is a positive change.
Contract Length & Early Termination Fee
In the previous version of our TMS review, we mentioned that TMS touted it had no early termination fee (ETF). However, even back then, we expressed skepticism that this was actually the case, based on all the customer complaints. When we reviewed both the TMS website and the complaints when preparing for this review update, we found that the “no early termination fee” language is no longer on the TMS website, but the customers continue to complain about ETF. This suggests that TMS does indeed have an ETF in its contract.
Speaking of the TMS contract, we cannot find a copy on its website. This is a change since our last review. While it was not easy, we were able to find copies of contracts on the TMS website as of about two years ago. Now, those links are gone.
From its independent agent website and customer complaints, we do know that the standard TMS contract is an online form that a merchant can fill out. TMS calls the process “Simplified Enrollment” and touts it as “the best online merchant application process in the business.” Apparently, this means that agents can sign merchants up quickly, but this also means that merchants are perhaps not given the time needed to look through the contract in detail. Don’t be pushed. Ask for a copy of the contract to read through before hitting that “I Agree” button. It’ll be painful to have to work through all that legal language, but we promise it will be worth your time and effort. Whatever you do not understand from that contract, ask your sales agent, and if they say something that seems to contradict the contract, ask them to put what they say in writing, preferably with the heading “Amendment to Agreement.” Verbal assurances mean nothing once you’ve signed a contract, so you need to have it in writing beforehand.
One last thing about ETFs. On the agent website, right next to the box that touts TMS’s ETF reimbursement program, there’s another box that says, “No Cancellation Fees.” While, at first blush, this might suggest that TMS does not have an ETF, the term used is somewhat peculiar. We know that TMS knows what an ETF is — it uses the term right next to the “No Cancellation Fees” box — yet it does not use the term “No ETF Fees” in this adjacent box. We also know that an ETF is just one of quite a few different types of fees that a processor can charge a merchant upon cancellation of services. There sometimes is an additional account closure fee. TMS could be referring to this flat fee when it says, “No Cancellation Fees.” In other words, be careful about this issue. Ask and, if TMS claims these are the same, then make sure to get something in writing about the ETF and Cancellation Fees before you sign up.
Customer Service & Technical Support
TMS offers customer support by phone, email, and online documentation. It also provides 24/7 “Terminal Support,” which covers any problems with your terminal, but is otherwise vague on the working hours of its other customer support teams. As to online support, as mentioned in our last review, there is a somewhat disappointing Support FAQ page with documentation, the contents of which do not seem to have improved since our previous review. We also found a lot of dead links on the support page, so they do not add confidence to the online documentation part of customer support.
The TMS customer support phone number and other contact information are very easy to find on its website. That’s a big plus. From reviewing customer complaints, while customers are sometimes bounced around a bit, the issues that aren’t resolved seem to go to its deliberately impressive-sounding “Presidential Unit,” which likely is merely a unit for escalation with higher settlement authority than lower-level customer service personnel. (This is not a unique practice in the customer service field.)
When you do reach the Presidential Unit, they do a good job of reviewing complaints. Impressively, they’ve addressed every one of the BBB complaints in the two years since our last review. They are courteous and fair, compensating merchants when they can but also not backing down when the merchant is unreasonable at demanding compensation. They investigate each complaint, going through the contracts, recorded phone calls, and other written communication. They do a good job.
The truth is, though, that there are a lot of customer complaints about TMS. While the customer support team seems to be doing a good job, they are merely putting out fires started by other departments. In most of these cases, the fires were started by unscrupulous sales agents who failed to disclose fees, especially early termination fees, as well as equipment return requirements. These issues aren’t customer support issues, but if you are that merchant who discovered hefty charges on your statement and who’s gotten the runaround, you really wouldn’t care.
At the end of the day, your time is your money, and we bet there are many other things you prefer to do with that time than talking to customer support, no matter how professional these folks might be. So while it’s nice to know that TMS does have a good customer support team, it would be better to simply never have to talk to them in the first place.
If you have had experience with the support offered by TMS, please leave us a comment! As a reviewer, it’s difficult to assess how TMS handles complex problems, so we rely on our readers to help us fill in the blanks here and keep the review as accurate as possible. The number of complaints about the quality of service makes it seem like TMS leaves much to be desired.
User Reviews
This score is a compromise score. TMS has an unusually large number of complaints, which under normal circumstances would earn them a score of “poor.” However, these complaints are diligently addressed by its customer service team and refunds issued when appropriate, often to the merchant’s satisfaction. That usually earns the processor an “excellent” score. To balance the incongruency of the two, we end up with a score of “fair.”
Negative Reviews & Complaints
Our primary source for reviewing TMS complaints is the BBB website. When we last reviewed TMS, the company had 266 complaints in the last three years, with 63 complaints just in the 12 months prior. We are happy to report that the number has come down to 90 complaints in the last three years — though, really, 90 is still a lot. What is impressive is that every complaint since our last review date has been addressed, most of them satisfactorily.
Of the complaints in the last three years, 12 were for Advertising/Sales, 35 were for Billing/Collections, 42 with Problem with a Product or Service, and one in Delivery. Note that these categories are probably self-reported by the merchant, so some of the categorizations may be imprecise.
We went through all the complaints and the offers to resolve the issues by TMS’s customer support team. Often, the customer support team merely refunded the money in dispute, but not always. In general, they tend to refund the markup fees but not the wholesale fees, which makes sense because the markup is what they can control.
Common complaints include:
- Undisclosed & Unexpected Fees, Especially Early Termination Fees: The majority of the complaints had to do with some sort of fee dispute. Often, this is related to the merchant being surprised to have been charged an early termination fee. Many did not realize that when they signed a contract, that contract was for several years (likely three years) with automatic renewals and early termination fees. Other fee-related complaints go to surprise fees/charges that the merchants were not told about by the independent sales agents. Some merchants discover the fee quickly and want the fee removed, but other merchants only realize they were missing money many months after mysterious charges had been deducted from their merchant account, so they belatedly demand a refund. The customer support team would often perform an investigation on the merchant’s file before offering a settlement amount. Typically, TMS would refund markups and stand firm about refunding wholesale fees. TMS tends not to refund fees that the merchant had been paying for years and claim that they didn’t know they were paying. (That’s why it’s so important to be aware of any monthly subscription programs that your processor signs you up for when you open the account. We have seen this sort of complaint a lot at Merchant Maverick relating to a variety of lackluster companies.)
- Unethical Independent Agents: The root of many of the complaints comes from the behavior of independent sales agents. Some customers recount stories of being pushed into giving their application information “just to see” if they can be approved. Others find, to their horror, that they were signed up to multi-year contracts with early termination fees when they agreed to no such thing. One or two were even unknowingly signed up by agents over the phone without their permission (although sometimes customer service was able to find contracts with signatures), or they were signed up to contract terms different from what they discussed with their sales agents. It’s worth noting that mention of unethical agents seems to have quieted down in the last year or so, so maybe TMS is doing something internally to weed out these agents.
- Problems Returning Equipment: This came up with enough frequency that it merits mentioning. If you opt for the “free” terminal deal, you’re essentially leasing the equipment, and if you close your account, you must return the terminals. Fair enough, right? However, there are clearly some issues with the return process — whether it’s items that are lost in transit, charges that appear after the device is returned, or shipping labels that never seem to arrive. Free terminals are often a bad deal, and you’re typically better off just buying them outright. Again, this is not an uncommon issue with providers that offer “free” equipment. Check out our article on the best options for getting terminals and other equipment for more information.
It is worth noting that not all of these negative customer complaints are, well, reliable. We found a few merchants who suddenly complained of fees they’ve been paying for years or claim they were defrauded into signing a contract several years ago…for which they’ve been receiving payment processing services but now suddenly realize that they didn’t mean to sign a contract.
Beyond the BBB website, we did look through other review sites. While those sites contain older reviews, they don’t have a significant number of new reviews (or complaints), so we did not elaborate on these reviews in this current update. Worth mentioning are a few more recent complaints from Ripoff Report where unhappy former agents complained of their treatment, and unhappy merchants complained that they were signed up to service by unscrupulous agents. At Consumer Affairs, there was a mixture of positive and negative reviews. The negative reviews mentioned unethical agents who pushed merchants to sign up, fees that were more than promised, and difficulties in terminating the agreement.
Positive Reviews & Testimonials
We complained in our last review that there were no positive reviews or testimonials on the TMS website, and maybe someone at TMS read our review. Now, you do see a couple of positive testimonials on the TMS website praising the friendliness and helpfulness of the customer support team (but remaining silent on the actual processing service). There is a link to additional reviews, but that link takes you to a mostly blank webpage without any added information.
We did find some positive reviews on the Consumer Affairs website, but most seem to be from customers who only recently signed up. They speak of lower processing fees. A lot of these positive reviews are around the early 2018 period but have since petered out, so it makes one wonder if, around that time, TMS had encouraged customers to leave reviews, but that effort has since ended.
Overall, you won’t see too many people going out of their way to say nice things about Total Merchant Services publicly, but you will find a number of sales agents who seem sincerely proud to offer the TMS products (including in our Comments section below). Certainly, this means that not every TMS customer is unhappy, and not every sales agent is desperate to sign up merchants to line their own pockets.
Final Verdict
Overall, it’s hard to recommend Total Merchant Services if you’re in the market for a credit card processor. On the positive side, TMS does offer a variety of solid products and services for small or even large businesses. The addition of PayAnywhere hardware and software since our last review really should be seen as a positive thing. Further, customer service seems to have significantly improved. They are a lot more active in addressing customer complaints, especially on the BBB website.
Unfortunately, these positive features are more than offset by the many negative factors you’ll have to deal with as a TMS customer. Previously, you could find a sample contract on the website to look at before you signed up. Now, we can no longer find one, so we can’t go through it and point out areas you might wish to consider or get clarified.
If you contact TMS, there’s a good chance you’ll end up dealing with an independent agent who’s more interested in closing the deal by any means necessary than in getting you the best possible deal. Early termination fees that may or may not be included in your contract, “free” terminals that might actually be zero-dollar leases that cause return problems when you end your contract, and surprise fees not disclosed by the sales agent can all be time-consuming and difficult to deal with. Given that there are so many other credit card processors that offer transparent pricing as well as (potentially) free equipment with far less hassle attached, we think you’re better off just staying away from TMS in the first place.
At the moment, Total Merchant Services scores a 3 out of 5 stars. If you do opt to go with them, beware of possible sales gimmicks, do your research, read the contract carefully, and, most importantly, get everything in writing. If you’ve had any experience with TMS, good or bad, please let us know about it in the Comments section below.
If you want to know what it takes to get a five-star review from us, check out our comparison chart for some examples. Thanks for reading!
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 Partner Marketing Manager, where he works to connect exceptional brands with the readers they serve best.
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Organization Name: galaxy
this is possibly the worst company in the entire U.S. I have so many bad encounters with them it would take a 1000 page book to cover. first the salesman ripped me off, then the company debited my account for a charge back that never happened. they had lead me along now for two months over 189 dollars. do not ever do business with them.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: In-N-Out Mart
Beware of this company. I investigated and started to set up credit card processing with this company so that we could take EBT cards. Never got fully set up, never got approval to take the EBT cards, and never ran a single transaction. Notified them we cancelled. (They later even acknowledged that to me). They continued to charge monthly fees. 4 years later they turn me over to collections and demand I settle with them! They say that they won’t shut the monthly fees down either because the account can’t be closed with an outstanding balance.As I said, BEWARE!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Blossom Custom Arts
This company is company of thieves I need to terminate my account.They said i have to pay fees Which i have never signed for, I did clearly talk with the Total Merchant Services when i opened my account that it should be cancelled anytime.I told them show me document i have signed. Then he said I Dont know anything but you have to pay fees.Moreover he said talk to the person who initiated service for you like they Dont know who opened my account like they dont keep that in system who opened my account total BS.He said we are not Total Merchant services we are North American bank you are calling on wrong no.I called the Toll free no. which is on website of Total Merchant Services.I am gonna take to the court. They dont know whom they are messing with.They gonna pay for it big time anyone who has same problem with them contact me.I am gonna run the Facebook and Google campaign too. He said let me call someone then he hung up on me.Just dont believe these people dont go for their service you will regret.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Elite Salons "hairstoyou"
Total merchant is sneaky and has poor handling of customers. You have been advised. The fees are high and you better stay on top of your statements because they make changes and not inform the clients .
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
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Organization Name: Best Buy Pawn
Total Merchant Services have turned into crooks taking our money with fraudulently fake fees I have been a customer for years up until they closed our account from filing complaints with feds, better business bureau and they didn’t even send us a letter or warning so this cost us money until we found another merchant. They charged us for 2 machines for over a year1/2 along with some made up fees when we finally caught it and brought it to their attention they admitted fault but would only reimburse us for 3 months we declined that offer then it went to 6 months declined it as well! $1400 is what they owe us that was deducted out of our checking account! This company has turned into a rotten bad apple stealing from business owners! Don’t use this company BEWARE RUN FIND ANOTHER MERCHANT THAT IS HONEST AND DOES THE PAYING CUSTOMER RIGHT!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi, Quick Questions. What are the other companies which provides these services?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Pavith,
There are lots of options, but here is a comparison chart of our favorite Merchant Account Providers. You can also try our filtering tool to see recommendations for your specific business needs.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Don’t under any circumstance use these thieves. Tons of hidden fees, no customer support, fees are not as described by independent agent, charge back system issued before even contacting merchant, getting account info is a pain in the butt. 2 websites and one not even run by them. Run as fast as you can.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Awful service. Consistently late depositing our funds: on weekends deposit the slow Sunday, keep the higher Saturday deposit and blame the bank for not transferring the money. Don’t return phone calls. Don’t send updates on queries after promising to do so. Machines don’t work reliably — they are tied into AT&T in a region where AT&T has virtually no coverage.In short, don’t go near this company.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Started off great then the excessive charges from them started. I would never recommend this company. Customer Service is a joke and the rudest people I have ever dealt with they are total jerks. They are rude and the word “Service” is unknown to them. I have discontinued the service and am waiting for the bomb to drop with charges. If this happens I am prepared to get an attorney involved. Run from anyone selling this service!!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I have had nothing but trouble with this company. It was nice at the beginning and then I started getting “okie doke” chargers in December of 2015… Other fees that I was not made aware of until I got them. When I asked about no disclosure… I got the answer.. “Thats the way we do it.’ Wow talk about customer service.. It does not exit. In December I got got my “tipping point”. On the 19th, 2016 I awoke to a alert that my bank account was negative $700.00 I went on line to see that Total Merchant Services charged my business account three charge backs totaling $903.00. I did not have any business or money put into my account for actual business. I contacted Customer Service at Total Merchant Services and they told me that they money came out of my account on charge backs on business I had done in the last week.When I told the young woman that there was no money in the account and no business that week… She went silent. After a long hold she came back and said that was a form for me to fill out to see if they could get my money back… I smelled “Fraud”… I went to my bank the next day and put a stop payment on the $903.00 exodus….. I stopped my service with TMS with an e-mail and letter. Also I returned their equipment to them – registered insured mail. They are still trying to collect on money that was never there to begin with…. Not at all honest. Do not do any business with these people under any circumstances…
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Don’t use proxy if you are a small business. They still are charging ETF and I was lied to by the salesperson. I have been paying the seasonal vendor fee each month for over a year to avoid having my bank account charged $299.00. It increases at whim went from 14.00 to 19.00 in Nov 2016 without warning. Do not use TMS unless you have a lawyer on retainer or are a very large entity
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They have ripped me off. I tried to end my contract 2 years ago they continued to take money out of my account until last month. I sent back my equipment 2 years ago when i thought i ended the contract. Now they are trying to get me to send it again. The person who set me up opened accounts by changing figures on a contract i signed and re coping it. I’m going to file a police report and call the better business bureau. They have taken over $2000 out of my account and provided no services.
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I dont like the way that they pull you in to the contract, and then they say you should have read the contract when they say every thing is free, no annual fee,no hidden fees, no IRS reporting fee, and they are not their to help all the time.how do i get out? help
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Hi Lonnie,
Unfortunately you are probably going to be looking at an early termination fee. In the processing industry, it is always advised to get things in writing, a verbal conformation is not enough. I would suggest thoroughly reading the Terms and Conditions of your contract and follow the instructions on how to cancel. Please also see our “Contract Length and Early Termination Fee” section of our review.
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I started with this company about 6 months only to find out they drafted $150 from my business account and I have yet to see my money I have collected from my account. Then when I wanted to cancel they promised to put the money in my account. They deposited $2.33 instead of $53. I will contact the comptroller of currency to bring this company down!
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I was with Total Merchant Services for 12 years without chargebacks. Other companies were telling me how bad their processing rates were. Called them for a review and was promised someone would review my rates and get back. Three months later no review so I dumped them only to discover they would hit me with a $95 cancellation fee. . . . after 12 years! I had no terminals or equipment to return and everything was already switched to the new processor. All they had to do was close the account. Wouldn’t wish these people on my competition.
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I was with Total Merchant Services for 12 years without chargebacks. Other companies were telling me how bad their processing rates were. Called them for a review and was promised someone would review my rates and get back. Three months later no review so I dumped them only to discover they would hit me with a $95 cancellation fee. . . . after 12 years! I had not terminals of equipment to return and everything was already switched to the new processor. All they had to do was close the account. Wouldn’t wish these people on my competition.
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I signed up for service from TMS in early 2013. I quickly learned that the software I used for my business used a proprietary Merchant processor, so I contacted the agent I used to start the service and told him that I needed to end my service with TMS. To my knowledge, my service was ended in early June 2013.Jump ahead to 2016, my business ended and I’m trying to end all business affairs. I notice that there are a number of recurring charges to my checking account that caused it to be over drafted on several occasions. I kept working with my Merchant processor to find out why the charges kept occurring. They were finally able to help me discover that the charges I was seeing were coming from TMS. I immediately contacted TMS and was told that they could see where the merchant account was closed in 2013 but there was an internet account that had remained open, which was the source of the charges I was experiencing. They promptly closed the account on February 3, 2016.I wrote seeking a refund of all charges that had been assessed on my account. TMS did not provide me any service. They simply just kept charging my checking account. I thought all of the charges that I saw on my account were from my Merchant processor, not TMS, who I thought was ended. TMS sent a reply stating that they received my letter and that I should hear a response within 24 hours. Well, 9 days later I write another letter since I have not a response. I got an anonymous reply from TMS stating that one account was closed and the other had remained open until February 2016 and that they do not give refunds, even if they didn’t provide any service. WHAT? They know that a request was made to their agent by me to close my account and somehow only one got closed. We’re likely talking over $3000 in unwarranted charges that they do not want to refund, even though they didn’t provide any service.The customer service that I have received has been less than desirable. I’ve elevated my complaint. We’ll see. I do not recommend them.
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Same thing is happening to me. Deposits not going into my accounts, strange fees being charged. No help!
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Rick, did you receive your refund or even a response since escalating? Pretty much the same thing happened to my wife!
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This company charges excessive fees!!! Every other month they tack on some kind of fee!!! Yes you have to wait on hold for a long time before you even get to talk to them!!! Then when you go to cancel your account when you are tired of the whole mess then they charge an extremely high cancellation fee. They never tell you that you are in a 3 yr. contract and that there will be a cancellation fee and that there is no way to undo the contract, until you decide to cancel. I asked one supervisor if this was common for people to complain about them not telling someone about the cancellation policy and she said yes. I think with this many bad reviews and them admitting that there is a problem that they would do something about it, like waive it and make sure their sales team tells the customers about it. This company is a total ripoff. I would never recommend their services, EVER!!
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[Potential Merchants] Notice that there isn’t a way to give star based reviews for this company on Facebook. Its because they will rip you off and not give you refunds for amounts that they “notify” you of. You also will not be allowed to speak with a supervisor after being put on hold for over 30 minutes.Yes you may save some money when they sign you up. But in the long run they will take more from you than even the bigger guys. My suggestion is to use anyone else except this processing company, which is now apparently owned by Wells Fargo, according to their footer on their site. Oh lets also not forget that if you want paper billing it is $2 a month. But if you want to login to look at your electronic bill you will have to reset your password if it has been more than 30 days. Which never worked for me, so I would have to email my area sales rep to get him to call someone, who would call someone, who would email someone that would send a password reset. I am now going to have to fight with these guys through my bank due to the charges they have placed.
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Absolutely the worst company to do business with in the history of merchant services, run far far away from these clowns. I’m taking them to court.
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Do Not Call list violators. They call me several times a week and simply hang up. When I call back the number that had just been so rude to me, it is answered by TMC. I told one loser who called me yesterday and was told off, that I make good on my threat to file a complaint with the FTC, and I have, numerous times. Now I call them back several times a day just to harass them and call them a bunch of thrid world shit eaters. They stopped taking my calls… I wonder why?Avoid these dirtbags.
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Monthly fees are way too high and customer service is slow. When I finally cancelled my account I was changed a cancellation fee on top of the poor service and outrageously high maintenance fees. No Bueno!
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date 6-29-15 this company has one of the most unprofessional representatives I have encountered in ach processing. I need an email back immediately before legal action is taken.1. missed (3) that is right three scheduled appointments. While I was preparing for an annual art tour my company performs. 2. I did not solicite your business, your representative walked into my brick and mortar and asked for mine, my time and my personal information.3. The debra bowen act puts very specific requirements and penalties for unprofessionalism that involve the request, storage and use of personal credit or identity information. Your representative gives me zero, actually less than that in confidence, your company is not a scam or complying with my privacy rights and financial information.4. Bait and switch to refusing to give supervisor information or company contact info on request after, she had proven untrustworthy with my and my company financial and credit and banking information.5. All we have is a business card, two cell phones which will be handed over in a fraud complaint and privacy act violation police report if this matter is not handled by the 2nd of July.If you are going to be in the ACH business, you need to tighten up. Totally pathetic that VISA, MC, DISCOVER or banks do not police you more thoroughly Couple this with a hit on credit from a mysterious credit processor, when our company did not soliciate one and have had the same since 2009 and in business since 1998.Fix or see you in court.
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This business engages in illegal practices, 100% of the time. This website states that the BBB has only received a small number of complaints, but when we filed our complaint, the number was at 311 in the past two years. This company sent us a contract via fax, which we signed. This contract had no term agreements or early termination fee written into it, but when we tried to cancel our account, they charged us a $490 termination fee. When contacted, they stated their copy of the contract had a termination fee on it. Fortunately, we had a hard copy of the contract. They did refund us the $490 because they realized they were holding a fraudulent contract which they had altered after the original signing. Even after this occurred, they charged us another $200 because we supposedly did not return the credit equipment. After a few more exhausting and ridiculous phone calls, they also refunded us the $200 because we had sent our equipment back months before the charge. Long story short, stay away from this business. They engage in criminal business practices.
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Can I give negative stars? I have been harassed by these guys to an unbelievable degree that I’m in complete shock. I received numerous phone calls from them and I explained that I was not interested in their services however they continue to call. I was not rude I just simply said no thanks. They will not take no for an answer. I just checked my voicemail & the last call from them resulted in the man calling me a “Mother F***er” on my voicemail. I am appalled that they would allow their employees to behave this way. I sure don’t want anything to do with them now and I want others to know what happened so that they don’t get mixed up in a company like that.
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Total Merchant Services are complete crooks in my opinion.I used this company for 4 years to process my credit cards at my small auto repair shop.The first year on average it cost me abot 1 to 1 1/2 percent .The last year I used them that number was up to 4 and 4 1/2.I changed companies and found a better company to handle my credit and debit cars at my shop.I cancelled my services and Total Merchant Services continued charging me monthly fee’s of about $50.00 a month for 26 more month’s for services they were no longer providing.I called and called until I was blue in the face.They play these hold games on the phone to make you feel like you will implode.I am a patient person but my goodness!! Finally after calling and canceling numerous time’s a rep. Of Total Merchant Services tells me that the fund’s they have charged me over the last 26 months for services they did not provide can not and will not be refunded and she goes on to tell me that if I truly want the monthly fee’s to stop I can pay a cancellation fee,again in the amount of $199.99. So as for me I will avoid Total Merchant Services like the black Plague!! I feel like I have been robbed by them and was overcharged and overcharged fees on a monthly basis.But trying to get away from the company is a whole other nightmare.The telephone hold games.The monthly charges they continue to withdraw from your bank account for services they no longer provide.A real nightmare.You would think in this day and age we as American;s would have someone to protect us from Savvy thieves like Total Merchant Services.I pray someone put’s a stop to their scam’s!!.
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It is too bad I have to give them one star. They desire 0. My terminal was shut down (swipe) TMS did not know the company went out of business. That was down for 10 days lucky I have an online account. Then they told me I did not have to fill out the IRS I think D-5 paperwork that my EIN number matched. Well then the government starting taking 28% of my deposits. Stay away from this company if you want to keep any of the money that your company generates I think that a class action law suit is in order. I would be all for that
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What does it take for them to accept the word NO, we get at least two three page faxes a week, I have requested at least three times to be removed from their fax list also called the company. I feel like this company is stalking us.
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I am relieved to have read your review and find that they are a legitimate company. I spoke to them and they started asking for personal information i.e. checking acct, #’s and credit history. I told them I would call them back, read your review and now I can make my decision.
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I am in the process of signing up for a merchant account so am spending a couple of days on research. Your review is the most balanced so far.Thanks
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Glad to help!
If you’d like some more guidance, try our new tool that matches you with the best provider for your business.
Take care,
Tom
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Went with this company cause they were suppose to be cheaper on fees just got our machine 2 weeks ago and started using it I checked bank account and none of our deposits were coming through they don’t know where the money is almost 1200 dollars they would have made us over draw if I hadn’t checked and unhooked their machine they better send us our money.
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I was called by TMS this afternoon, and when I questioned their fee schedule and high early termination fees they put the squeeze on hard to get me to sign up. They sent me a contract which they wanted me to sign while we were on the phone together, and I asked them to call me back and give me some time to review the terms. Thank God I did. These guys gave me a knot in my stomach. No WAY would I sign up for services with them.
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Stay away! Unless you want to give up most of your money to TMS. Dishonest, phony fees, cranky tech support. The billing support people cannot even look up your account, and you will hang on the phone for a very loooong time just to find out that they are ZERO help. They took 1/4 of the money I booked thru them, until I kicked them off the stack.
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Been with this company like 5 years and I’ve never had a problem. If something is wrong with my cc they have replaced it no questions asked. If I need paper they give it free and with in 2 days it’s great. I’m really shocked by these reviews and makes me think maybe I should change companies but what one to change to that offers free machine in paper at such a low price for processing
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you are paying $10.00 per month for that ‘free’ paper … the 1st month is really free after that you are better off buying the thermal paper online …. I forget what they called it but its 10 bucks a month and you can cancel it … I do about 1000 a month in charges and its always 45 to 60 in fees etc … I’m looking for a cheaper company now …. they are going to review and email me in 24-48 hrs to try to keep me … and 95 buck pci fee sucks every year …
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I have been a customer of Total Merchant Services for more than a decade. If i could give them a zero, I would. More than a year ago we asked for explanation regarding hidden fees, poor communication and a host of issues. Our agent was Martin Franze. Long story short, he repeated three times in the last month an incorrect date regarding the termination of our contract, then declared a penalty more than double what would have been assessed had his claims been correct. Even under the threat of a call to the Colorado Attorney General did he persist with half truths, denials and misstatements. When I was able to independently confirm that he was not in possession of the facts, when he was finally “caught” at the eleventh hour, he played the “Sorry for the confusion” card. Stay away from this unethical company. They are expensive and worse, do not disclose the truth even when confronted. I have never filed a complaint or registered an unfavorable review in my 15 years of doing business, but others should be warned.
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This company is a total RIP OFF! We fulfilled our contract duration and they still charged us $195 to cancel our contract. We sent our machine back as instructed and now they are trying to charge us $750 for not returning our machine. DO NOT do business with this company. They are scammers. Their monthly fees were very high and they were always taking out additional fees. Terrible!!!!
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WORST COMPANY EVER STAY AWAY FROM THEM, machine hasn’t worked in almost a 2 weeks , lost costumer and money, . I call and call when I finally did speak to someone they were extremely rude and condescending. I have been trying to cancel for weeks and apparently no one in the company knows how to because they just transfer you from person to person and every one say something different , Also I was charged for the month where the machine wasn’t even online ,TERMINAL WAS N’T WORK ,They are just scammers ,crook and the fraud, go on my bank account 3 times and takes money , I have to fight with them .I have my business 21 years , never had such problems ( 1 year only I have them )BED, NASTY , steal your money STAY FARO WAY FROM THEM
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Horrible experience. Every complaint you’ve read is true. As a small business owner , who was told I would be “taken care of” I felt extremely let down by both my inside sales rep and TMS directly. I finally switched to a new service provider and I was told repeatedly and assured my TMS account was closed- yet every month I received deductions, monthly fees, and terminal security fees for a terminal that hadn’t been in my office for over 4 months. I sat on hold for over 2 hours on multiple occasions only to eventually be offered to leave a message and a customer service rep will call you back (who never did!) It’s nearly impossible to try and close your account- once opened and even my inside sales rep is useless in the process. Entrusting them with my business was the biggest mistake I ever made.
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Machine hasn’t worked in almost a month. Trying to talk to customer service is like pulling teeth as it takes about an hour per call to even get someone on the phone before they transfer you to some other department that also puts you on hold. When I finally did speak to someone they were extremely rude and condescending. We have been trying to cancel for weeks and apparently no one in the company knows how to because they just transfer you from person to person until you can no longer stay on the line because you are at work!!!!! Also we were charged almost double for the month where the machine wasn’t even online!!!!
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Read the bad reviews. Believe all of them. Cancelled my account as they are simply liars and thieves. Today there are far better options. Hopefully the reviews on this website will cost them business and save someone a huge headache.
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My daughter had the account to begin with and turned it over to me and I used it for a year or so and stopped. I never signed any agreement papers and was told that once I stopped using the CC machine and all transactions cleared that I would not have to pay anymore service charges. I retired and stopped paying close attention to my account, had many health issues and multiple collection agencies collecting health payments. I kept noticing a Global charge on my account and thought it was the last of my health care payments, but it kept being taken out and was varying amounts every month. I called my bank and they told me who the company was and I realized they had taken at least $2500 over a 3 year period out of my account. Officially I never authorized them to take any money out and at first they would not even talk to me because it was still in my daughters name. Having gone through an act of congress, we closed the account and I knew that I was out all that money. I accepted that. Never once was I told to send the card reader back….besides it was over 5 years old and extinct by now. About a month later I noticed $750 was taken out of my account by TMS company and over-drafted my account along with many more transactions as well because I did not anticipate $750 from my account. When I called they said that I needed to send the card reader back, I was very angry because after all I never authorized anything to begin with. They said they would send me a box to send the card reader in and I said, give me the address, I will send it back myself. They agreed that I would get the money back on my account quicker that way. That was September 3rd and today is September 22nd. I still did not have the money on my account so I called again. They gave me such a run around, I got my daughter involved and every single time I would barely raise my voice I was told not to talk to them in that tone. So DO YOU WANT ME TO SING MY DISPLEASURE!!!!!! Thank GOD for tracking records but of course, it is never their fault. DO NOT EVER USE THIS COMPANY!!!!!!! If I do not receive my money back into my account by the end of this week, this message will be on Facebook, Yelp and any other service I can find. Oh and by the way, they still do not have anything signed by me, so a lawsuit may be pending!
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I had signed up for this when my wife was just looking for info. Called to cancel that day and was advised to refuse shipment of machine and I did. One month later I get a box to send the machine back to TMS. Called them and told them it had been shipped back. A rude man told me that they had not received the unit and I was to investigate why it had not come back. Told them to call FedEx for that information. Today I find they have taken $500 from my checking account without authorization. I called them and they admitted the mistake, but told me they had to keep my money until I could get paperwork from my bank. I spent 2 hours of my productive time with these people. Stay away from them.
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I’ve been with TMS for a little more than four years. The rep told me they had no cancellation fee, and there was none in their “Schedule of Fees”. As a small mobile business owner, I’ve been tempted to go with Square or a clone and just accept credit cards with my mobile phone. I’ve stayed with TMS because I like having paper receipts that a customer can write a tip on. Anyway, after they added a mysterious $100 charge last December (we get your Xmas bonus charge), I decided to start looking elsewhere. Apparently I’ve been substantially overcharged for a real merchant account all these years. I recently switched to a lower cost alternative, and when I went to cancel my TMS account, I was told there was a $195 cancellation fee buried in #13 on page 3 of their contract agreement. BEWARE!! Read the fine print. These guys are shady and and will lie to your face. This rant is my only legal recourse.
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TMS sucks. Here’s why: I signed up for a cc machine because I was doing a govt contract and could only be paid with a credit card. I’m in construction and a cc machine is not a necessity for me, so if u use a machine a lot perhaps one should disregard this rant. The machine works great, no complaints. The problems arose last month when my bookkeeper asked about a $67 auto withdrawal from my account. I have not used the machine for 3 months or so. I called TMS and got nowhere except: “read ur agreement sir”. This was about an hour of being on hold. Yesterday, my bookkeeper said, “you call the cc company? Your charges are $77 this month. I have not used the machine 4 months now. So, I called them back and was referred to my sales partner, who is an independent company that signed me up. TMS really doesn’t know what these “sub-prime mortgage lenders” are up to, at least that is what they told me. I did ask 4 times on the phone when I signed up: 1% fees right? Yes, they didn’t hesitate to say. I know there are fees to a business, I am a company president. But I hate being lied to and rushed through a contract and then have the fees doubled over the contract amount. My agreement was $25 per month, $10. For wireless and some other minor fees. The $77 a month? Nobody has an answer. Tomorrow I will spend another hour on the phone settling my termination fee of $400 to get out of my 5 year contract. Be careful with this company. They use outside sales firms but don’t seem to have a handle on their practices which tells me they are not a good company to choose. And that is why TMS sucks. Please fact check the info presented on the header of this article. There is lots of misinformation. Good luck and if u are choosing a cc service, I encourage u to be very careful as the only recourse I had for any consumer rights was writing this rant.
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On March 26 2013 I sent a signed letter asking to stop our contract of accepting credit cards. February was the last month we used them for credit card processing. They or the Alaska Financial Network Corp who signed me up would acknowledge me. I had my account manger acknowledge in Oct of 2013 & do absolutely nothing. All the while they keep taking 67.20 out of my bank account as Global Pay, on 1/31/14 they took $166.20. They took 9 x 67.20 = 604.80 + 166.20 for a total of $771.00. I put a stop on my account in February 2014 & finally someone from one of the companies call & says they do not have my signature so they can not cancel the account, however later they admit they have my original letter signed & they have no records of sending me an e-mail stating they needed my signature. They have a note on my account from an employee who no longer works for them saying she sent an e-mail. March 2014 charges show up on my account of 67.35 from guess who TMS a stop is put on my account in their name. I call & guess what they tell me they are just going to keep switching names (I guess they have plenty of names to use) & taking money. I ask for refund for taking my money with no right to take it. In June 2014 they credit my account $134.70. They still owe me $703.65 & I want to start a class action lawsuit is there anyone who is in this situation who wants to join or a lawyer who wants the case?
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Just found out they’ve been deducting money from my account since Sept 2013, I canceled in Aug 2013. My bank is useless, they are disputing charges for the last 60 days only! They are also putting a stop payment to prevent them from taking anything further but informed me that if they change their name even slightly, TMS can still take money! I’m down for a class action law suit!
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I just went through the same thing you did. I had two business with this company theycharged me over 1,000 in fees after I was out of my contract and canceled. I would love to get some people together and have a huge lawsuit against this company. I just got off the phone with this fraud of a company. This is not the last time they have heard from me.
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we have a business here “European auto co.” and we are having difficulty with our transaction- I keep calling my agent- no response- busy all the time- and we call the 888 # its always busy- what should I do- no very happy about the service- can not get anyone to help. on line or by phone- Help please-
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Worst service ever my business is suffering because they are holding my working because of the lack of experience they have and are ripping me off if i gEt my money in going to sue .WORST COMPANY EVER STAY AWAY FROM THEM
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Terminated my account without any warning as they said they had switched banking to Wells Fargo and could no longer service my gun shop. The lack of warning has cost me a an enormous amount of sales, profit and credibility with my customers. Worst company ever!
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I seriously have never had to deal with such a cluster fuck as a company as this. THEY ARE HORRIBLE. They tell you theres no yearly fee, however they charge you a “security fee” of $100. I just started with this company and not even two month later I get a later saying I am going to be transferred over to collections because I have a out standing balance of $100 for a security fee even though I knew nothing about it. I then call and see if they can remove it, because why would a pay a years worth for a security fee when I only had them for two months. The girl that worked there told me it would be taken off and I would be able to receive my transactions for my money. Two weeks later nothing, still haven’t received my $300 in swiped transactions. Called again and another girl told me that “you no longer qualify for the credit back for the security fee”. I ask why, she then says “because you didn’t file for a refund in time”. At this point I went off, because I did file for it, two weeks before actually. I didn’t get me refund back so theres $100 out the door for no reason. I then want to cancel my account with total merchant. I paid off the $100 security fee and the girl from total merchant said she would call me back with a confirmation number. a week later, no call. I call her ext. back, no answer. I call the 1 800 number AGAIN. They finally tell me that my account is now closed and they are going to mail me a box and that I have 10 days from the time the box arrives at my house to send it back. They box never showed up, so total merchant then goes and charges my card a $750 terminal fee because I never mailed it back. HOW CAN I MAIL IT BACK WHEN I NEVER GOT THE BOX WITH THE SHIPPING LABEL!? This company is a joke. There is no origination, they nickel and dime you for everything, you pay them at the end of the month for credit card fees (they don’t automatically take it out of each transaction), they don’t know there own product, and aren’t trained enough to even know what there saying. THIS COMPANY SHOULD BE OUT OF BUSINESS.
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.
I find it quite strange that TMS seems unable to show me any sort of statement until 2 days AFTER they charge me a discount fee. The capability is there and they could do it if they wanted. (look at Amex) It is almost as if they have something to hide.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
This company is a ripoff. Do not use them. They messed my accounts up on setup, again on changing me to another processor, and then kept billing me after I cancelled them, and wouldn’t refund it. Incompetent, unresponsive, and uncaring.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Could you please advise me as to a preference in selling for a particular merchant? I’m a experienced agent deciding between a couple of processors to sell for. EVO, Global, Harbortouch, etcYour input is highly respected. Many due have several pros and cons.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Troy, Unfortunately we do not assess processors/merchant services providers from the agent’s perspective. I would, of course, recommend looking into any of our best rated providers here. I’ve heard good things about working for Heartland Payments, but again, I don’t evaluate the experience from the sales perspective. Best of luck.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Who processes for TMS? Do you know thanks.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Troy, TMS uses Global Payments for processing. You can see a copy of the TMS Merchant Agreement stating this here.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I had the worst experience with TMS. They told me that my small business would only have to pay 14 a month, and the cc fee. Instead I was charged 50 a month for not meeting a quota they never told me about. I would have never signed up with them if I knew that. Thank you TMS for being fraudulent on your services and your billing practices!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
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I cannot speak to how TMS may have operated several years ago, but as long as I have been associated with them, the standard agreements have all been month to month. In fact, they encourage agents to keep the monthly / no-cancellation-fee structure. And their pricing is highly competitive. While their structure and minimums may vary slightly from other providers, I have found that they are extremely competitive in significant ways. Aside from no annual fee, they also cover the cost of PCI compliance for the first 12 months and then pro-rate it monthly at the lowest rates I have seen in the industry after that. Interchange plus accounts are available and there is a lot of flexibility with the tiered pricing they offer, too. As with all processing companies, it is essential for the merchant to work with someone who discloses all the fees and terms and answers all questions. When I began my association with TMS, the first things they said to me were that every merchant should be set up monthly with no cancellation and that I would need to ensure that the service was good enough and the rates low enough that the merchant would want to stay with them. With that basic credo, I have had zero attrition. Since they only use Global Payments, they cannot process every merchant I represent. They also do not have a solution suitable for all the merchants I represent, but for many merchants this is the absolute best choice out there.Also, they have relocated to Southern California. Not that this is a huge issue, but it bears an update on some of the info in the review.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I used TMS as a result of befriending a person who worked for them. He said that he would give me a great rate, no contract, and never mentioned a cancellation free because no contract was signed. They continued to charge me after I complained that they were more expensive and said that they would give me a better rate after I discovered that they were charging more than my bank was. I reversed and disputed the charges to my account and today received a letter from a collection bureau. I will never pay those thieves. Listen to your gut and use a bank or reputable company. I read the reviews before I started with them and told my friend of the bad press. Unfortunately, I trusted my ‘friend ‘ and not the reviews. I deal with a branch in Northern NJ, but I would not trust any of them. They are totally sleazey operators. Please heed my warning.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I was with TMS for 1 year before we had to close our business due to moving. The last 3 months we did $700 on our card and were charged $89 per month for the service! So we closed the account and were told to expect a call tag within 10 days. We got it a week later, but we have no fedex location due to the extreme rural state we live in, so we did not get the machine back for a total of 20 days – our nearest fedex is 89 miles away.They charged us $750 for the machine and we are still disputing this but my gut tells me we will get nothing back. 🙁
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
My bank told me that we could file a claim through them against the company for the $750 after we returned our machine and had proof of this.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
6 years and over paid all 6 years , when I told them I was leaving they offered me a better commission rate ? No customer locality anymore, and forget customer service forget it, I was a half hour on the phone to get to a real person.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Total Merchant services Ripped my company off hundreds of dollars and I am still fighting them to get my money back they are theives.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Honestly this Total marchant company should be close down, they ripped me off and almost ruined my business, they stole from me thank God it was not too much before I realized what they stand for. Oh their representatives sucks, you can actually tell when thy speak. I was going to sue them for my money, but I feel mine is too little from others. I just feel upcoming mini business owners will not become a victim anyways. One day I know Better Business Bureau take an action to bring them down.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I am self employed and I use Total Merchant Services to set up retail customers with updated equipment and rates. I consider myself independent of TMS because I maintain the customer service with my accounts. I don’t even give them the main number to TMS because I want the customer to know I care. They call me or my wife with any question or issue. I started in Oct of 2007. I have nearly 300 customers today. I have never lost a customer due to poor service, lack of response or inaccurate rate quotes. I can resolve 99% of any issues myself. I also install the equipment (even if it means running telephone lines or IP connections) and I train every customer on the use of the equipment. You are correct in saying that some of TMS BBB issues are due to poor reps. From my perspective, I do have problems with TMS withholding funds at the drop of a hat. But, I have learned to resolve those issues within 72 hours and the customer only had to wait one extra day. TMS sends me an e-mail every time one of my customers has had any unusual activity. I respond to every e-mail. It is the rep’s responsibilty to maintain that account. That’s why we get paid. You cannot sign up an account and disappear. Which, unfortunately, so many companies do in this industry. My wife and I also set up ATM Machines (RBS Lynk) , clean carpet, clean office buildings, teach people how to cook, paint murals, appraise properties for sale, build websites, raise chickens and three daughters. I have never worked for anyone but myself. I have had 30 years of waking up in the morning and knowing that I have to put the food on the table. I treat the customers like gold. And I have been well rewarded.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.