Use Caution With Merchant Services

I recently had the misfortune of a bad Merchant Service experience. And therefore, I want to caution all of you to use a great deal of caution when deciding on a Merchant Service account. I have a machine that I am locked into a lease for another 1 1/2 years from when I owned my salon. For ease and convenience (ha!) I went with what I thought was a reputable company I found on the internet. Sounded great. Low monthly fee...no contract....rates were right...so I signed on. Right from the start I had nothing but trouble. I couldn't get the machine to settle properly and when I did, they held a $1k transaction for two weeks to audit it. Yes, they had the right to do so. Not for two weeks. The worst part of that experience is that there was NO communication other than the notice of the audit from the company other that what I sought out. There was no return of my phone calls...no messages were returned...none. I did not get to the bottom of the problem until I called the Bank handling the transaction itself. I was overdrawn and at first call, the bank had no idea where the transaction was. Being a small business, $1k is nothing to mess with. When the transaction was finally found, two weeks had passed. Fortunately I live in a small town with a bank where I am on a first name basis with 4 out of 5 people who work there. They reversed all my overdrafts took great care of me. I learned my lesson. I will only have a MS account through my bank. No web bargain shopping for me. I am staying with a name a trust and where I know there will be communication should any problems arise. Learn from my lesson. Go forward in the Merchant Service world with caution. Stay with your bank and people you trust and above all...I advise staying far away from Paynet Solutions and subsequently, Pipeline Data, Inc. May the force be with you.