Comments on: Bank of America

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:22:39 +0000

I have been using Bank of America or one of there predecessors for 7 years. I started with Chase Paymentech who then became First Data and is now Bank of America Merchant Services. Do you due diligence before using this company. And keep accurate records of every conversation you have. If you don’t have a record of the confirmation number referencing the phone call, it is like the call never happened. The name of the representative and the time the call took place is not enough. I have had occasions where I did not receive an authorization code after processing a transaction. After speaking with customer service, they said ‘No authorization code, the transaction did not go through. Run it again’ I processed the transaction again, per BofA’s instructions and this ended up double billing my client. Bank of America took no responsibility for this mistake. They even double charged me for processing the transaction twice. After over an hour on the phone, they finally refunded my processing fee, but it took alot of my time. I cancelled my merchant account with them in November and just noticed they are still charging me a monthly fee. I spoke with a supervisor and they said if I don’t have a confirmation number of the cancellation, the fee is valid. In my opinion, Bank of America Merchant services is a terrible company with lousy customer service. I would not recommend them to a competitor. I have switched to a new merchant service company and this is saving me about $100 per month. More importantly, it is saving me a great deal of time.

By: geektom

geektom — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 22:54:25 +0000

I did a lot of research before choosing my merchant services. Reading a lot of the comments here, I have to say, most of your complaints would apply to *any* card processor. It seemed like every company I researched had “hidden” fees and cancellation penalties. I chose Bank of America because I liked the idea of having my processing and my banking together, my funding would be next day (I am a brick and mortar store, not internet business, I think that makes a difference) and I wanted a real place to walk into if I had a problem. I had 2 small issues and both were handled by their customer service people. My salesperson has checked in with me after the sale, which I did not expect. Because I read my contract carefully I have had no surprises, and I honestly felt they had way less fees that some of the other “free” companies that dropped off flyers at my place. Overall, I have no complaints.

By: Willy

Willy — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 01:34:46 +0000

They conned me into buying a new CC machine telling me that my older machine does not have enough memory to be reprogrammed per new IRS regulations. That is a lie. My new bank reprogrammed the old machine.

By: Neil Horsfall

Neil Horsfall — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 02:05:55 +0000

Bank of America cost my business thousands of dollars! When we were first opening PNS we decided that we were going to use BOA as our credit card processor. Like alot of people when they start a small business our credit wasn’t excellent, but not terrible either, so we were told that we should do a credit exception, which would take 24-48hrs to be approved. At which point i explained to the representitive (Vijay Givens) that we were in a rush and had already been approved with a third party processor, she assured me that it could be done quickly.
48 hours later i had received no phone calls from her, so after leaving 5-6 messages for her i finally got a return call, at which point she told me that the credit exception had been approved and that i now had to fill out the application and it would be 5 days to process, I again explained that we were in a big rush now and that 5 days would be close, she again assured me that it had already been approved and that it would be 5 days maximum. So we filled out the application and faxed it back and waited 5 days, again no phone calls. I left 10 messages a day for the next 6 days and got no response. Finally 15 days after i filed the application i got a phone call telling me that our application was denied!
I then spent the next 2 days trying to get in contact of any executive that could help me, I finally get a hold and executive and explain that my advertising is running but i have no way of taking peoples money!
She tells me that it is not denied that i just need to send them a business plan and in 24hrs everything will be ready and assures me that we will be compensated for our loss of advertising. So we send them the business plan, and again, no phone calls. after calling again all day, i finally get a phone call telling me again that our application is denied!
So we ended up telling them that we didnt want the merchant account through them and moved to a different processor! We are yet to see any compensation for the thousands of dollars we lost in advertising.

This is the worst customer service i have ever dealt with in my life!

By: Minnie

Minnie — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 04:14:37 +0000

I am an international student who never have a credit card in the US. I have applied for my first credit card with BOF, which is a bad idea. I have been a BOF’s customer for 2.5 years. I have deposited money on my account more than 30K.
The credit plan I can get is a secure credit card that I need to deposit $300 and credit line is $300, $39 annual fee ect. Some of my friends who are also international students, new customers and have no money on the account, they got a reward credit card, no deposit, no annual fee and $1,000 credit line.
I went to the bank to find the reason why I couldn’t get the same one as my friends. The bank officers told me they have no idea, the credit card analyst system tell them which plan they can offer.
So another question is why the system offer bad limit plan to good customers and good plan for unknown financial customer. The answer was they have no idea, it’s kind of random. If 5 people have the same profiles, they will should 3 of them to reduce their risk. That was a stupid answer and nonsense.
In my opinion, it because of the bank officer has no experience or fill in something wrong. I applied my application at BOF, Porter sq but my friends went to different branch. They could even apply a credit card with bank tellers.
I can’t cancel my suck credit card until I get a different one, it would effect my other application somehow.

By: Julie Hammer

Julie Hammer — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:35:24 +0000

Stay very far away from Bank of America for Merchant Processing; all the reasons mentioned above here, I too have had firsthand experience of. They are crooks.

By: Paula McDanielson

Paula McDanielson — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 04:46:08 +0000

Bank of America Merchant Services the contact person is Camille Kalogeropoulos found this name online listed her home address on line for this bank.
The merchant reps she goes through them she is not nor is the entire company ethical they tell their reps to lie and charge hidden fees for signup etc they have a $500 cancellation fee for their 54 page contract.
She fired several people and not paid the mileage that is owed to any of them she demands that they “lie” about actual mileage logs submitted then she doesn’t authorize payment for months if ever.
There is money deposited into wrong checking accounts and as employees we can’t get our money back. This is a bank and employees can’t even get paid.
They have also announced lay offs in merchant services by mid November 2011 and they keep re doing territories and fire people to give their favorite people the right market.
They started the year over to not pay commissions to the reps they are partners with First Data I just found on line and the complaints above

By: Chelsea

Chelsea — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:58:54 +0000

I am a very small business and was charged so many hidden fees that I couldn’t make any money when I charged clients’ credit cards.

I tried to cancel my account (and was told by the rep. that I could do so…) and I am now being charged $500. Do you know where it says that you are signing a 3-year agreement? Page 44 of the user guide. The rep. I spoke with about this claims that this is very clearly stated. I called the Bank of America that sold me the service and they can’t help me, called customer service and they won’t help, the rep. that sold me the service no longer works for the company. Such a nightmare. Unbelievable.

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 01:14:05 +0000

Very poor service, if you are looking to sign up with Bank of America Merchant Services – DON’T !!!

Don’t say you haven’t been warned!!!

Pressure marketing during signup process, false advertising, lots of hidden fees and a $495 bail out fee if you decide that the service is not up to par and want to sign out before 3 YEARS!

1. They will ask you what’s the cheapest discount rate you were quoted on thus far, and they will beat that rate.
CAVEAT – What they don’t tell you that every transaction requires authorization fee, and if it is an internet transaction, then you get hit with TWO authorization fee, plus a batch fee.
Additionally, your discount rate get assessed regularly, and if you do not meet a certain goal, they will increase it accordingly.

2. They will tell you that you will get your money deposited the NEXT day.
CAVEAT – This is an all out LIE, the money will be deposited 2-3 days after the transaction is approved, and sometime it may take up to 4 days depending on the transaction. In fact the contract small print that you sign actually says 2-3 business days.

3. If you are an internet merchant, they will say that all you have to pay is your monthly gateway fee, plus whatever discount rate that you sign.
CAVEAT – They don’t tell you on the phone during your conversation, but it is written in small print somewhere in your contract that there is a minimum transaction fee that you have to meet otherwise they will charge your account an additional $25-30 (around page 2 or 3, note that all of these occurs over the phone and contracts are faxed or email-faxed, so the resolution are really poor and fonts are extra small depending on your fax machine).

4. Some department have very few operators, so they ask you to leave a message and someone will NEVER call you back.

5. If you are an internet merchant, you will face FRAUDS from all over the country and the rest of the world. Bank of America Merchant Services WILL AUTHORIZE any transaction that have some sort of matching to the address or name of card holder. Be prepared for Hundreds of dollars worth of Chargebacks and the additional chargeback fees, and remember every transaction are charged a discount rate, authorization fee etc etc. so when you face chargeback, you give back more than what you get, minus the loss from your product cost.

6. Finally, when you say ENOUGH I don’t want to use them anymore, they will tell you that you have a 3 years contract with a $495 early termination fee.

The whole thing is legal scamming of businesses!

By: Frank Lee Fedup

Frank Lee Fedup — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 20:25:45 +0000

Watch out for the little signature box with no papers to back up what you are signing for. They are sticking me with a 4 year lease agreement with first data global leasing. Even though I was assured I could cancel with no obligation within 30 days.