After starting a small internet based business, I soon realized that I needed payment processing to complete transactions done by credit cards. I proceeded to seek my options online and ultimately decided to choose a company named “National Merchant Bankcard.”
On December 14th 2010, I created an application and was approved for a credit card processing terminal account. I linked the credit card terminal to my online store and started to accept credit card transactions from customers globally.
When I filled out the application from National Merchant Bankcard, I was approved on December 17th 2010, for a ,000 / month credit limit as well as an average sale of .
The contract stated that after I accepted a successful payment, they would “batch” submit the payment to my bank account (currently held at Rockville Bank) within 48 business hour, not including holidays or weekends. In the month December, 2010, only 1 transaction was deposited into my bank account at Rockville Bank, however, 9 total successful transactions were processed and accepted into my business. That one transaction was completed on December 22nd, 2010 in the amount of 1.27 for an Apple iPad which later was filed as disputed for a stolen credit card.
For the remainder of the month, I had no deposits into my bank account for the rest of the eight transactions. Mysteriously, ,809.80 is being held at this company’s office for the month of December 2010. Their contact information is listed below.
I immediately called National Bankcard (my account reps) and questioned why I have not received any funds for the merchandise I have sold. They gave me a number and transferred me to another company. Apparently, National Bankcard does not actually do the processing. A third party company named “iPayment Inc.” completed the actual transactions. I proceeded to call them using the contact us information from their website, http://www.ipaymentinc.com.
On Monday, January 3rd, 2011, I got in touch with iPayment and their Risk Department. The contact information is below. I was bounced around, transferred, and placed on hold for quite some time. I finally got in touch with a man named William. He is one of the account specialists with iPayment. I proceeded to tell him my situation and why no money has been deposited. He proceeded to tell me that my money has been placed on hold because of a high risk. Why kind of risk? I have done nothing wrong and have not even has an unhappy customer. William transferred me to Mark, another account specialist who had more information on my account.
I spoke with Mark about my account and the risk involved on January 3rd, 2010. He proceeded to tell me that after a review into my account the funds would be released. He asked me to fax over documents and invoices from sales and transactions made. I proceeded immediately, faxing him documents that were needed for the review. He confirmed that the documents were received and that my account would be placed under review, however, I could still accept payments. At this time he said the funds (,809.80) would be placed under hold until a complete investigation could be completed.
He proceeded to also tell me to keep conducting business transactions with customers, EVEN SHIPPING THE MERCHANDISE OUT TO THE CUSTOMERS SO HE COULD VERIFY THE ITEMS HAVE BEEN RECEIVED. According to Mark, the review is to take three days. I called back each day for the next three days, and kept getting a run-around answer.
In January of 2011, I conducted a total of six sales totaling ,112.30. This money is also being held by iPayment for verification. As normal, I took payments (which stated they were approved for processing by iPayment) and shipped the merchandise to customers. Like anyone who does business with iPayment, iPayment makes the customer believe that the money will be released to the customer after the three day hold period. If I do not ship the merchandise to the customer, they will become unhappy and my business will never grow.
I called on Thursday, January 6th, 2011 and asked to speak with Mark who was reviewing my account. I asked him to release the funds immediately that were on hold because three days were up. He said that I had a chargeback (credit card dispute) and that I was a high risk for them and the money needed to be held for 180 days (6 months). I questioned him why and he said so there is no liability on our end.
I informed him that this was unacceptable and that I have never heard of such a policy anywhere. He laughed and said that I was out money. I am unsure what that means or I cannot wrap my mind around this huge scam. He was rude and hung up the phone on me. This makes me believe that there is a scam going on here or that they are “buying time” as they invest my large amounts of money to make money for themselves.
CAN THEY DO THIS?