North American Bancard Consumer Reviews - Page 6

LURAY, VIRGINIA -- Early in Jan I was called by North American Bancard and was told about great credit card rates for my business. They sounded great so I went with them and cancelled with my old bank. North American sent me the hardware in the mail I hooked it up and it would not work. I called tech support and told them that it would not dial and process a card.

After a few minutes of going through different codes I was asked if I was on dial up or DSL. When I informed them that I was on DSL I was told I would have to have a router. Tech Support told me I would have to buy the router to make it work. I had to go to a supervisor before North American agreed to send me a router. When it came I hooked it up and still no luck. I sat on the phone for approx 90 minutes going through code changes with a tech support person and could not get it to work. I was told they would have to contact my phone service provider to figure out how to make their equipment work with my provider!

I then called customer service to cancel my contract because they could not get me up and running. I was told I would have to send the equipment back and I would have to pay the shipping. Again, the first word out of anyone's mouth in this company is NO! Finally, a supervisor sent me a UPS label to have the equipment sent back. I was also faxed a termination letter which I signed and faxed back.

On 5 Feb 08 I am checking my bank account and there is a charge of $47.60 that North American is hitting me for. I called them up and they informed that they do not have my letter of cancellation on file. They have my returned credit card machine which would lead me to believe that I no longer have service with them. Right now as I am writing this I am trying to get a letter of cancellation from North American but they keep faxing me a letter I can't read. Do you want to know what their response was? It meets all the legal requirements.

They could not alter the font to make it readable. The best they could do is mail it! This is not a reputable company to deal with and I will personally make it a mission to dissuade anyone in my community from dealing with North American!

PENNSYLVANIA -- I had trouble with my MTT credit card machine and called tech support. I kept getting an error message on the terminal. Tech support tried a few different things but nothing worked. They said they are sending a new one to me.

A new one arrived in 3 days but no call tag to return the one that was not working. After a week passed I called them and told them to send the call tag to my business as I was en route home from a business trip. The unit was packed with their packing and sent back by UPS. Now here's where it gets to me. At the time I sent it back to them there was no physical damage to the unit other than I was not able to turn the unit on. They claimed that upon receipt of the item from UPS the phone was broken off from the swiper unit.

They then proceeded to debit my bank account for the cost of the unit which they claim cost $395.00 without notifying me and I told them that it was not in any way damaged by me and there was a 3RD party involved in this which was UPS at their busiest season. This caused an overdraft in my checking account for their 4 fees for the month of Dec 2007 in the amount of $152.00. so now this replacement MTT has now cost me $547.00.

I went through 3 tiers of North American Bancard with no recourse and no satisfaction. And to add insult to injury I did have a MTT terminal dropped by one of my employees a few months earlier and told them so and they charged me $160.00 to replace the very same unit. When I brought this up to them their response was it's a different supplier of this unit. But it is still made by WAY SYSTEMS in MA. so how does that justify a $235.00 increase in a few months for the very same unit?

Frankly I am going to put this on my blog and all my kids and friends blogs and cc it to anyone that is thinking of doing business with North American Bancorp so they can get a feel of how this company operates. I thought that this company was supposed the protect their client base (meaning us merchants). You know the ones that pay their salaries and perks. Needless to say I will not be renewing my contract when it comes up for renewal. BEWARE OF NORTH AMERICAN BANCORP. THEY DO NOT TAKE CARE OF THEIR CLIENTS.

By the way...Looking at the other complaints from other merchants I too never got a full disclosure of terms and conditions. I only got pages 1 & 2 and only read the rest of they on their website today.

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO -- My experience with North American Bancard is similar to previous complaints.

1) The credit card service never worked. Our IT services and territory manager could not get the service to work. Our IT manager has several years experience and no amount of time investment could get the product working satisfactorily.

2) Customer service at North American Bancard says they have no record of our problems and blames us for the problems.

3) We returned the equipment after several attempts to resolve the issue and the company continue to charges us even though the service has never been activated due to technical issues.

4) The company threatens us with collections even though the service was never used. All initial payments were made in good faith even though the service never worked.

5) Customer service is non-existent with this company.

6) Any users reading this may contact me at ** to start a Federal Trade Commission Complaint or lawsuit against this company. I have a 20 year legal background up to and including working with the Supreme Court as a paralegal. I fought against companies like North American Bancard in the past and have had some success against them. My experience also covers defending companies like North American Bancard that have legitimate claims against deadbeat customer, so I know both sides of the issue.

My legal background is in Article 9 of the UCC, FTC (Federal Trade Commission") law, consumer law and Secured Transactions. I have connections with several law firms across the country including two of the top consumer law firms in Colorado where I live. I am on a first name basis with partners at Holme Roberts and Owen and Hall and Evans.

If those involved would care for me to work on this issue, I am willing. I would be happy to coordinate an action against this company for all concerned if my complaint and yours are not resolved. My legal theory for our claim will be discussed with each of you who want to bring a claim. This legal theory is effective in most cases and I have won complaints for consumers and Finance companies with my expertise. The FTC has decides with the consumer on most similarly situated complaints.

I have been burned just like each of you with a complaint. I have a reputation as legal bulldog. I propose starting a claim with the FTC for all of you who with to join me. I initiate this legal action myself on our behalf with little cost which I can absorb myself. I will start contacting each of you by email soon. Feel free to contact me to know that my heart is in the right place and to gain your confidence on my intentions. I recommend not threatening North American Bancard with a lawsuit, but to move forward with an FTC complaint unless the situation improves dramatically.

ANACORTES, WASHINGTON -- I just happened to look closely at my last North American Bancard statement and discovered that I was being billed 9.95 for My Biz Perks program. I then looked through my past statements and found that I had been being billed since 8/31/2010 totaling 59.70. I spoke to a representative who said that I would have been advised that I had 60 days to cancel prior to the billing starting. I found a paragraph on the 5/31/2010 statement that "announces" the My Biz Perks and advises going to www.MYBIZPERKS.com to start enjoying the benefits!

I strongly made my point that I had not solicited nor agreed to this program. She put me on hold to consult a supervisor and came back with a courtesy offer of 29.85 refund. I told her that they were fraudulent stealing from me and she asked if I was refusing the refund. Of course I said no. I would take the partial theft refund and see who I could report them to and find another credit card processing company.

Check your monthly statement carefully. North America Bancard is charging $9.95 a month for this "Mybizperks" program. I never signed up for it and I am actually upset about this. I was told today that it would all come off my next billing statement. I was put on hold a long long time before reaching a real person. I am relieved that he said it would be credited back... We'll see. I am thinking hard about getting an attorney. Sounds like a class action suit to me. Also, I would think three times before signing up with these people. Can you trust them?

MISSISSIPPI -- As a developer of software and also a customer of NAB, we have found it to be a please working with these people.
We have worked with several card processing companies since our inception in 1997 and have found that NAB has the most reliable service of any of the major card processors.

As with most of these types of companies, NAB has its share of "bad apple" marketing reps. I have read just about every complaint on this site and see the same type of complaints I see about every other processor out there. I feel sorry for the small businesses who feel that they got "ripped off". As a small business owner myself, I hate having to deal with representatives that don't know their own line of business. In the card processing arena, only about 20% of the sales agents actually know and understand the business, and can easily explain what goes on from day to day.

Most of these sales agents are self-employed people that only care about commission and not the customer. You can't blame everything on the "home office". I would estimate that 90% of problems revolve around sales agents that don't care enough about the customers to totally explain everything. Our representative here in Mississippi takes personal care of us. You can't beat that kind of service. I am sure that these types of sales reps are rare. If more sales agents would take their job and their customers seriously, we would see a lot less of these types of complaints.

TROY, MICHIGAN -- I decided to open a new company and added Credit Card services for my customers. This company will sell you a ship compared to other services on the market by starting off with Free Terminal equipment. All the benefits and fees you feel is ideal but they stick you with a 3-year contract and an enormous cancellation fee, and absolute worst customer service. They did not document my problems and claim they did not have any records. I went through telephone training. But when it was time for the real transaction, every time I had a problem trying to process a credit card, IT NEVER WORKED.

I tried to call into the bank and they closed early so you had to use the automated system and it never processed my transactions. I talked to technical support and they never got me working either. I decided to cancel my services 3 months later and they threw up the cancellation fee. I decided to ride out my contract at a low cost monthly, they decided to double my monthly fee after 2 years and debit it from my account without my knowledge or agreement. Every time I called, there is no management available and they were not flexible about resolving the problem.

I am currently seeking assistance to fight against this company. I cancelled their access to debit my account any longer and they are still threatening me they will continue to debit, even without my permission even after I submitted in writing 3 times. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS COMPANY TO MY ENEMY, IT IS NOT WORTH YOUR HEADACHE.

TROY, VIRGINIA -- I was talked into using their service (Phone Swipe) for my credit card transactions by a salesperson who said it was just like Square I was currently using, but with a smaller percentage charged. He did not tell me there were hidden monthly charges plus that I had signed up for a 3 year contract. I sent the equipment back but they continue to charge me the monthly fees. I tried to tell them I was not told of the 3 year contract and they said I could cancel it for $280 (I have 2 locations so $560).

I am working with my bank to get the charges blocked but they change slightly their transaction numbers so they cannot be blocked (apparently this happens a lot to them and they know their way around it). I was told by Wells Fargo that this is a disreputable way to draft fees but as yet they cannot stop them. I also have been unable to get a copy of the contract I signed on a computer (so I had no hard copy).

TROY, MICHIGAN -- STAY AWAY. I sold my practice, and the new buyers didn't want this service. So I initiated closing the account. I was charged 'minimal' fees ($50-60/month) during this transition even while no transaction were being processed and they still additionally charged me an early termination fee of $490 although I had been with them for years. When you call to discuss your account with customer service, it will take you a minimum of 30 minutes each time!

My final straw which led to this review (of which I've only reviewed 2 things in my life) was that on top of the charges mentioned above, there was a 'new' fee of $99 annually that I was charged even though my account had been silent for a few months. I was told initially that they would refund that fee after they received the equipment and $490. Now I'm told I won't be. GREED - not customer service and doing what is right.

NORTH CAROLINA -- We moved and changed banking information, updated the credit card company with all the new details, have our bank write to them with our banking information, and it's been three weeks now we have not receive anything from them. They are still collecting the money we processed. Every time we talked to someone, we were told a different amount that we were to receive and surprisingly we were still processing, but the funds they report to us was getting less and less instead of more. We will have to get a lawyer if our funds are not received by the end of this week. We are definitely changing companies.