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I unknowingly found out that the company I leased my equipment through had a non-cancelleable 48-month lease term -- supposedly.
Not even a week after obtaining my equipment I discovered a much cheaper way to process cards that made much more sense for my business. I thought I could cancel, and signed on with the new company with a knuckle buster system set up to call in my transactions from my personal cell phone -- not such a big deal as Merimac made it sound. They also insisted that I would have much higher fees with a knuckle-buster system. True, but the cost of the cheaper system far outweighs the monthly fees they are charging just to LEASE their equipment!
I SENT THE EQUIPMENT BACK, never opened it, never turned it on, never even processed a transaction. They are insisting that I am BOUND by the terms and that I must pay-off the remainder of my lease, even though I returned the equipment. This amounts to over $2, 700. The unit doesn't even cost this much if you purchase it out-right.
When I tried to put a stop-payment on the bankdraft, they reacted with debiting my bank account for $595, then again later for $795, all without telling me or giving me warning that they were going to do so.
In order to get this fraudulent activity to cease, I was forced to close that account and open a new one. When I did that it finally got their attention and they suddenly began to correspond with me in a much more calm manner, but still insist that if I don't pay that they have a right to take me to court.
I am now trying to get set up my online bill pay with payments that I send as I am able to pay them on a monthly basis. Do I even have an obligation to pay them anymore since I don't even have the equipment in my possession?!
https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/cases-proceedings/1923166-first-american-payment-systems-lp
Merimac has agreed to a settlement making their leases null and void if you tell them it was obtained fraudulently. They cannot charge you anything. Just stop you ACH payment and wait for them to call. They admit no guilt it cheating companies for over 10 years, and paid 4.9 million in damages. The Texas Supreme Court will approve this agreement in the next few weeks. I got out of my lease just citing this proposed agreement...fax it to them and you will prevail.
I just experienced this "LEASE PERIOD 60 MONTHS" when attempted to cancel Lease where my paperwork that was signed on the original date has "16 Month Lease Period". AppStar claims there was a voice confirmation taken from me, which I never would agree to 60 months, and that it is kept confidential. I asked to get this voice confirmation file and they said it would take a Legal Action. How do I proceed? I am severely frustrated with these companies.
Did you ever get this issue resolved, we've had the same problem with this company.
Always autograph all contracts By: first name only, all rights reserved UCC 1-308
Learn the administrative process to get a default judgment OUT of court.
Did you ever get this issue resolved, we've had the same problem with this company.
I've had the same bad experience. Not sure if cancelling my account is a reasonable way to go or not. Would love to recoup the money they've taken.
Do NOT deal with Merimac, AppStar, and especially a salesman in North Carolina, Jonathan Honeycutt. We were a relatively new company, in business about a year, when he came by with his aggressive sales tactics. He did not make it clear at all that we would be dealing with 3 companies (App Star, Shopkeep, and Merimac) and paying 3 different prices. I asked if it could be canceled if we went out of business before the 3-year contract was up. He said yes he would put that in the contract. Well of course, now that we have gone out of business, the only company who did not give us a hard time was Shopkeep. It looks like our Merimac contract is for 60 months (!) and we are only into it about 25 months, and even if we send them their equipment back they still want to charge us over $1500. I told the girl (who was a real [censored]) that we would be sending the equipment back, but we would not be paying that. She said a collection agency would be calling us and I told her fine, go for it! Lesson learned!
Could not shake them when they were pursuing me now I can't get even a return call. I signed nothing. I had recently purchased new terminals from Wells Fargo but they said they couldn't use then and would give me new ones free of charge. We were with them until the first statement and saw that pretty much everything they told us was untrue. I unplugged their machines and went back to Wells Fargo. They began taking money from my account. They charged be rent on the two machines at different rates and then withdrew from my account over $6300 to purchase the machines. I have called many many times and never get anything but the answer machine and they don't return calls period. I've since returned the machines registered mail and they got them. I filed a report with the Better Business Bureau, The FBI, the local Sheriff's department and again online with the FBI. I tried the Fort Worth Police Department and they just blew me off. I've never been so disgusted with an outfit like this. They have messed with the wrong guy this time. I'll take it to the Supreme Court if I have to and will sue them for damages if possible. HORRIBLE ORGANIZATION.
We are victims of their fraud and scam as well. I read your complain and please, do update me about what you have still to do with them; I am sure many businesses like us would not mind to help each other bend this monster company and prevent it from ripping people off. My family is broke because our business is so weak by the summer and we have no savings! They took everything we have to live off and/or pay bills..
And what can we ALL do about it...NOTHING! Totally upsetting! As consumers, we can NEVER be to careful!
Fraud is a federal crime. Research administrative process and get a default judgment OUT of court, then put a commercial lien on them or sue in federal court. Do not get an attorney. Go sui juris.
Merimac lies. My lease expired on the equipment and when I called for the correct address to ship the equipment back to they said the lease may be up on the equipment but the "account" is extended for another year and if you want us to quit taking payments from your bank account for the "account" then you have to pay us $599.00. Unbelievable! How can an "account" be extended for one year when the equipment lease is up and you no longer have the equipment to process credit cards. What a scam. I hate Merimac Capital, half the time their equipment didn't work and I was not able to take checks for the last year of the lease because the new processing machine they sent me didn't have the correct chip to make it work with the check readers. What a Fraud these folks are.
...I did business with Merimac also. I was never told about the early non-cancelleable 48 month fee. Now they want $2500 for each of my stores. I am sure it is in the contract i signed, but i am thinking i should have been told up front about the fee. My new credit card provider told me that they would pay all fees if i changed to their service. After they found out how much i owned they told me it was impossible. Also when i was using Merimac the first year they were charging me to much for each credit card transaction. I finally figured it out and ask them why my fees were so high and they came back and told me i should have been paying lower fees. They adjusted the fees but i was never reimbursed for the over pay. Right now they sent me a letter to inform me if i don't pay the money they will take legal action against me. I am at the point were i told them to do what they had to do. I was screwed at both ends...Sad
This is so sad. it just happened to me, too. I really don't know what to do. they are threading me that they will take me to court if I don't pay about 22, 000$. I want to know if anyone of you paid or did they take you guys to the court? I am in the middle of this right now. help me out please! I went through Apex, the guy said, he will give us free paper and lowest rate. then they end up charging $800 out of my business account in August. soon, my business closed but the money could not flow around after they took that much money. now, Meirmac called said I can paid one time fee or around 800$ or 35$ monthly fee. I ask him to sent me the both bill statement then I will decide which one I will pay you when time come close. he never sent me any of the bill statement. just today, I received a letter in the mail he wanted over 2000$! a machine does not cost this much. please help me out I am so stress right now, and I really don't know what to do.
I strongly believe Merima Capital is a scam company and this company and its agents intentionally work together to cheat customers. They told us the equipment was free, but instead charged us for $70 monthly for 60 months. They took away $4
200 from my account. I want to sue them, but didn't have time at the moment.
I think you need to sue them and everyone on this board to do that so it would stop the scams from going forward and hurt other businesses and families.
Do an administrative process and get a default judgment OUT of court.
Happening to us as well. Can we sue for fraud? Was told I could cancel and return the machine at any time when we signed up. Is there a class action suite I can join?
Happened to me as well. They did the same thing and took over 3000$ from my account w/o warning. I am trying to go to court with them.
Business Owners:
Now, as a result of Merimac fraudulent and outrageous sweep, both of my accounts are overdrawn and won't be able to pay my business bills, not even my utilities and fuel. They took -$879.41 twice or a total of -$1578.82 from both accounts.
it happen to metoo. the from Apex come to my business and promise that they will beat any merchant out there and also i can cancel this contract anytime. it's so sweet and i sign it.but it came out not like that even i paid alot more than my old merchant. i call them to discuss about this and they told me if i want to cancel this contract they are happy to do this. and late on they took $600 out of my account. i call them and they said that is a fee for close the account and they transfer me to merimac for return their equitment and i found out i cann't cancel this lease. either make monthly for the rest of the lease or pay them $4500 and return the equitment to them.
this is a big mistake i ever make. so i warn a people out there whom looking for merchant company please stay away Apex and Merimac Capital. they are [censor] and lier.
I too was visited by a nice salesman who told me this device would cost me X amount plus a small fee per transaction from the CC companies. He lied when I asked him about any other fees, saying there were none. He lied to me about it being compellable. Lo and behold, deep in the pages of small print was the non-cancellation clause and the bit about an additional service fee that was more than twice what I had agreed to pay. This company makes deals based on FRAUD. Do not deal with Pete Miovar (the salesperson), AppStar (the middle-man company), or Merimac Capital. All three will promise you anything to make the sale and then drain you for every penny they can.
The representan of First america payment sistem and
marimac capital, he came to my busines, talking very nice
about accep credit card, and before i sing the paper work, i ask
him if i can cancel at any time he said yes, after i call first
american sistem they toll me i can cancel any time, i call
marimac capital, they toll me you sing a lease for four year,
i toll them TRAVIS toll me i can cancel any time, they said nooo, finoly i cancel first american payment sistem, because
they send me a letter, by law you need pay this amount, and
i call the bank and i put stop payment on first america payment sistem, but in the same time, i cancel marimac copital, i diren't know, now they call me and they said can collec the money from the bank, now i need pay $1000 for the
machine. And TRAVIS took $155 for my cheking account and
he never toll me wy he took that money.VERY BAD EXPERIENCE
that is the same thing that they told me that i was leaseing it for 1500 now they say it 2500 and if i return it it would go down to 1900 but i still have to pay 50.00 a month untill i am done paying for it and again DON'T SIGN ANY CONTRACTS WITH THIS COMPANY!
I have the same problem with Merimac Capital. I thought I was purchasing my wireless terminal. I found out later after making payments for 1 year I was only leasing the equiptment. They told me I signed a contract to pay $71 per month for 48 months for a machine you can buy for around $1000.00. I found this out because when I missed one payment they charged my account $3500.00. I then started receiving calls that if I did not pay up they would turn this account into all the credit reporting agencys and ruin my credit. They call about every other day asking when I am going to pay. I closed down my bank account and found another processor.
Don't sign any contracts with this company!
Same here; we initially blocked the merchant services from getting to my accounts. It caused me so much pain and anger that they take a lot of fees. In fact, they were taking bankcard fees twice under the pretext that I have two businesses on the same terminal. They broke into my account using a different name which is Merimac lease Collection. This is Fraud and it is a SCAM. How many businesses could legally take money from accounts just because they could break in the account?!