Leaders Merchant Services review: Unauthorized charges 60

The worst company to deal with. I decided to go with them because of the low fees in the begining. After 6 months without any notification fess went up 20%, I called but no explanations. I decided to close the account and it took me over months to stop them from charging me all these fees. Everytime I would call they came up with another exuse, but meanwhile they would keep charging you hundreds of dollars. It takes 30 days from the day you complete the close account form and they still charge because they take thier sweet time to do it.
Never Never Never deal with this company.
Every time you see this logo run away, close the page.

TERRIBLE - Merchant Account Services, Credit Card Processing Machines, Accept Credit Cards

Leaders merchant services is a rip off - DO NOT USE THEM!

Leaders merchant services charge fees and do not explain to you exactly what your are getting into. I was initially paying $20 / month in credit cards fees and then it went up to almost $70 in credit card fess. I called leaders merchant services customer service and leaders merchant services gave me valid points but it wasnt what I thought I was getting into. They also stopped payment on an item i was trying to collect money for but when the went to credit the customers account back they sure did not from keeping $1000 from coming out of my account. So I had to pay $30 stop payment fee to keep it from going through. LASTLY, I was charged $350 for early cancelation fee. How funny that I made $120 probably from my site and they made... $800 + off me. Great way to do business ### HOLES.

I WILL NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH LEADERS MERCHANGE SERVICES!

Brandon

LEADERS is one of the sorriest-growing merchant service providers, or merchant account providers, in the U.S.

BEWARE OF THIS COMPANY! THEY SAY "$5.OO A MONTH, NO HIDDEN FEES." YEAH, RIGHT. I HAD THE THING THAT CONNECTS TO MY IPHONE, USED IT FOR 4 DAYS, AND MY MONEY WAS NO WHERE TO BE FOUND FROM THE FIRST DAY I STARTED IT. BUT ITS AMAZING, THE CLIENT GOT THEIR RECIEPT VIA EMAIL ASAP... (THIS IS HOW THEY GET YA ON ALL THE FEES, IT TAKES A WEEK TO GET YOUR MONEY) **RED FLAG* SO I USED THE THING FOR 4 DAYS, STOPPED USING IT UNTIL I SAW THE MONEY. **ONE WEEK LATER* I SAW MY MONEY IN MY BANK ACCOUT MINUS &100.00 ! HMMM, $5 A MONTH... SO I CALLED THEM, THAT WAS A COMPLETE JOKE, "WELL MISS, ALL THESE SMALL BUSINESSES NEED TO READ IN FULL WHAT THEY SIGN" ... **RED FLAG** SO I SAID I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW ALL THE FEES FOR THIS ACCOUNT, THEY STARTED NAMING ALL THESE FEES, MY FAVORITE IS THE IMPORTANT ONE THAT YOU SHOULD KNOW BEFORE YOU SIGN, IF THE 2% FEES DONT ADD UP TO 180$ A MONTH, YOU GET CHARGED THE REST, **RED FLAG**... UMMM, DONT YA THINK THEY SHOULD LET YOU IN ON THAT ONE AND NOT HAVE TO DIG INTO YOUR CONTRACT TO FIND IT, WHICH TO THIS DAY, I CANT FIND WHERE IT SAYS THAT). "ITS IN YOUR CONTRACT MISS, IF YOU READ WHAT YOU SIGN, YOU WOULD KNOW THIS" **RED FLAG** SO I DECIDE, YOU KNOW WHAT, IM GOING TO CANCEL WHILE I CAN, TOO MANY RED FLAGS. SO, I SIGN A RELEASE FORM VIA FAX. THEY SAID WELL ITS DONE, ITS NOT NECESSARY TO CALL BACK AND MAKE SURE ITS CLOSED OUT.. **RED FLAG** LOL... DO YOU THINK ITS DONE? NOOOOO, I GET FEED TWO DAYS LATER, ONE FOR 32.95 AND ANOTHER THE NEXT DAY FOR 12.95., SOO I CALL... (HERE WE GO), THEY SAID "IT RAN INTO THE NEXT BILLING PERIOD, DIDNT TELL ME WHAT THOSE FEES WERE" OK, FINE. NOT EVEN A WEEK LATER, CHECK MY ACCOUNT, THEY TOOK 7.95. CALL BACK (HERE WE GO)... "THAT IS FOR THE MANUEL MACHINE THEY SEND YOU AT THE BEGINNING" OH, YEAH, THEY DID SEND A MANUEL THING, THEY CHARGE YOU 7.95 A MONTH FOR THAT. DO YOU THINK THEY TELL YA THAT, "ITS IN YOUR CONTRACT MISS"... ITS FUNNY HOW YOU CLOSE THE ACCOUNT AND YOU STILL GET FEED TO DEATH. CALLED ONE TIME, THE GUY HUNG UP ON ME! NICE I KNOW. AT THE END OF THIS 3 WEEK MESS, I HAD TO CLOSE OUT MY BANK ACCOUNT! REDICULOUS! GOOD THING I SAW ALL THE RED FLAGS BEFORE I REALLY GOT STUCK IN THIS COMPANY. SINCE I WAS ONLY IN FOR NOT EVEN A WEEK (WHICH THEY TOOK $300.00 TOTAL IN BS FEES)... I GOT TO GET OUT. PLEASE DO YOUR RESEARCH BEFORE YOU SIGN WITH THIS SO CALLED BUSINESS! WHAT A JOKE! VERY UNPROFESIONAL, RUDE PEOPLE! YOUR SALES PERSON WILL BE YOUR BEST FRIEND TILL AFTER YOU SIGN AND HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT THE FEES!

I too have been scammed by this company. They called us offering their services, great rates, etc. Once we started doing business with this, which was only for two months, they started adding on fees which were not disclosed in the original contract. We sent them a letter stating that we no longer wanted to do business with them. That is when the fun started. Every month they were pulling unauthorized fees from our account ranging from $11 to $99. When we called them they stated that this was disclosed to us in the contract we signed. IT WAS NOT. I contacted our financial institution which put a block on our account so that they could no longer withdraw fees from our account. The funny thing about Leaders is that each time they withdraw money they change their name. From Leaders to Lead Merch Svcs to Leaders Merchant and so on. We have not done business with them since December, 2008. I checked my business account today, 12/30/09 and guess what...they pulled $99 in "annual fees" from our account. I contacted them and they told me that it was a non-refundable annual fee and that we had never sent them a letter terminating our business dealings with them. Incorrect - we did. I asked to speak to a supervisor - his name is supposedly Ben - and I was told each of the five times I have called that he is either not there or on the phone. I have now put a freeze on our business account with our bank and will file the necessary affidavits to try to collect the money from them. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY. THEY ARE UNPROFESSIONAL AND SCAM ARTISTS.

Same story here about the $129.00 fee . After Talking with Chris Lopez I checked Merchant's website carefully and saw no mention of other fees.Now I'm getting the run-around while trying to clear it up.I think it's time to close my checking account associated with this company so that they can't "help themselves" to any more mystery fees.

leaders continues to charge me for fees after i have closed my account. i have been charged for 2 years of security fees for just 1 year of my account with them, thier fees are extremely high and the customer service is far less than one would expect, beware of this company, avoid them and tell everyone you know to stay clear of these theives

I provided my company info. and account on Leaders merchant inquiry form on their website and end up with 10, 000 charge on my account. Be aware of this company.

Leaders salesrep apparently gave a lot of false information to entice me to enter into an agreement with them. I was told that I had a seasonal account which would allow me to suspend service for 6 months and not incur fees. To date no one at Leaders could give me any details on this offer. I was told that the salesrep is no longer there. (what a surprise) Every month there is a new fee on the account that is not mentioned in the contract. They say they will refund the fees but never do. Instead, additional fees continue to appear on the account monthly.

One month, they deducted $2, 000 from my account stating that it was not authorized properly. When I ran the charge, I received an authorization number so I did not understand. I gave them all the documents they requested and to date I have still not received the $2, 000.

I was also charged with charge back fees. I, under the advice of a Leaders agent, duplicated several charges because I was told that they had not gone through. When the did go through, the charges went through twice so I refunded the duplicative charges to the customer. Leaders then charged me with several fees for charge backs when they would not have occurred had they not told me to run the charges twice!

On 5/7/10, I spoke with a supervisor named Chris who was extremely rude and stated he would not refund anything. It is apparent that this company is merely interested in misleading merchants. Proceed with extreme caution.
If anyone is interested in joining a class action against Leaders, please contact me at hobson666@aol.com. ---Tanya H.W.

BE VERY CAREFUL ABOUT THIS COMPANY. They do not disclose the hidden fees and state that they are pass throughs. Also, They don't tell you about the monthly $25 fee, $129 annual fee and the that it is a 3 year agreement with cancellation fee.
When I called the company, they told me all the info was on a disk sent to me after I signed the agreement and I had 30 days to cancel. Never received such disk. Due not use this company

I have been with Leaders for over a year now. The company has its own flaws especially when I call their hotline where some of the people seem to not know what they are doing. However, the best thing the company offers is probably the lower rates compared to my previous provider. The features are excellent and rarely has a downtime. I would recommend this company to anyone I know!

I specifically asked the REP that I talked to if there were ANY OTHER FEES, other than the $8 monthly access fee and the per charge transaction fee and he told me there were NO OTHER FEES...HE/THEY LIED! They have charged me over $215 worth of fees, and I have NEVER gotten the reader to work even once! SCAM!

I dont understand the extra charges that they mention. I am so lost. I never experienced that with leaders. I have been with them for 8 months now and I don't have those extra charges on my bill. I trusted them with my business and never had problems with it. Whenever I had to reach customer service they were very accommodating. I usually call them to ask how to process cards because Im old and I dont know how to do that so I have to train my people with them on the phone just to make sure they get it right. They were patient and a real sweetheart. I hope the other people could get their problems fix but as for me. Leaders has been a good business partner and I am keeping them for as long as everything works fine.

I have been with leaders 2 years now. I wont deny I did experience having to call customer service because of unknown charges on my account but they always fix it. I have experienced working on a company like this before and its really the system that's causing the charges but their customer service is always there to assist and help correct those charges. I called them and they help me lower down my bill by getting rid of the unknown charges. I know sometimes it gets so inconvenient to have to call but they wont notice the system errors unless you bring it up to them. So far, that's my only complains about leaders and my business is doing good with them so I dont plan in changing merchant service provider anytime soon.

Unbelievable CROOKS. I was with Merchant Services which suddenly stole from my account $140. An annual fee that they just decided to hit me with. I called and complained that we are a small healing center based somewhat on donations and $140 is a lot to us and we signed an agreement to no annual fee. They stated I was mistaken and that was the fee. I got a supervisor that understood our business and changed our annual to $49. Okay but suddenly the next month we have a $35 charge for noncompliance. I call again and was told I didn't fill out a compliance form. No big deal but I NEVER got the form to fill out and they never sent me the form even after I complained I never got one. So the next month an other $35 hit. I call again and am told I will pay $35 each and every month I don't fill out the form I CAN"T GET. Just paid the $140 annual which was to be refunded back down to $49 but OH YEAH they failed to refund me all of it also -FORGET IT. Cancelled immediately. Then they tried to hit my account with a $300 cancellation fee(which upon initiation I was told did not exist) I went to my bank and closed my account. So after processing only $500 in business over 4 months I lost close to $200. Wait - it gets better. By the way when I cancelled with Authorize.net it happened immediately with a phone call. Merchant Services made me fax (after4 calls to finally get the form AGAIN) a cancellation - then informed me it could take at least 30 days to cancel. Blood sucking thieves - so again I just changed my bank account after I sent the cancellation fax even though I lost almost 40% of my gross revenue with then. So I look for a new processor and settle on Leaders- BUT I TELL THEM MY EXPERIENCE WITH MERCHANT and the salesman says it could never happen with them. NO hidden fees, No cancellation fees, No compliance fees...blah blah. But I notice that Leaders is in the same city as Merchant services - no wait I look it up and Leaders has the same ADRESS as Leaders. I call back the same day and say I don't want to open this account with Leaders if they are the same company that just screwed me royal. The sales rep says"THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH MERCHANT SERVICES" just get their mail at the same large commercial address. Pretty good answer on the fly so I buy it.I have already spent 2 days with this new application process and my center needs to collect from the Internet sales. Well I get my first bill and the rates are triple what I was promised. I am charged over $30 for processing only $180 in the first month. I call to see what happened and am informed that I have the highest rates available. I tell her that I didn't agree to that. She says I did. I said fine cancel me. Guess what she tells me I have a $300 cancellation fee. I go nuts. I tell her thats ridiculous and I specifically did not agree to it based on my previously bad and fraudulent experience. She says nothing she can do. I tell her to cancel - she of course tells me I have to fax a cancellation to her. I have to call AGAIN 5 TIMES more over the next 2 days to get the email cancellation form. I open it up and guess what. The form is exactly the same form as the Merchant Services cancellation minus the heading and the piece to resistance is it is the same FAX number. Yes Merchant Services and Leaders are the same company. Not only did they cheat, lie, and purposely defraud me. They did it to my face. On the phone lying to me that Leaders had no affiliation with that fraudulent other company named Merchant Services just so they could screw me again. [censored] feels good to get waxed by pros. So now I am on the way to change my bank account again but this time they have crossed the line. I represented many real estate fraud cases in the last 4 years and got to know the AZ and CA attorney generals. I will properly document this case(Cases as it were) and submit a formal complaint to both the attorney generals in both states. The Better Business Bureau has 288 complaints against Leaders. Do you think they really give 2 hoots. If they can lie to my face about everything. terms and affiliations they can only be mobsters or the devil. Is that anyone you want to give your business banking account access to? I think not. I dare Leaders to contact me and make this right. Any bets on the outcome. In case you want to be slippery again and pretend I don't exist here is my account numbers Merchant [protected] Leaders [protected] - cause it will be closed today.
Run from this company. RUN RUN RUN

Yes, I just got ANOTHER charge from them-- a dormancy fee. Outragous since I was told the same thing. At this point it might be cheaper to just pay the early termination fee and be done with them. By the time I pay all the other fees in 3 years I will have paid out MORE than the early termination fee! Wow. DO NOT USE THESE SERVICES!

laina, I had the same exact problem. The Better Business Bureau actually solved it for me.

I TOTALLY agree with all the complaints! Leader's Merchant Services are THIEVES! My account is CLOSED and they are still charging me fees! They are saying it is still open but I filled out the "close account form" and faxed it TWICE and they are still saying my account is open! There hasn't been any activity on that account in over a month and they are still charging me fees. I can't get anyone on the phone that can help. I've even called Cindy, the complaint resolution specialist, and haven't gotten a call back! By far, the WORST company I have EVER done business with! HORRIBLE! A TOTAL RIP-OFF!

Every Bad thing that someone has said about this company is true! I have never been so frustrated by a company and their business. Even when I canceled them, they still wait 30 days to let charges build up. Criminal...

worst company ever!Started charging 4.95 regulatory fees every month..They will also charge you TIN fees of 7.95 per month eventhough you have validated your TIN. Reps dont have answers to this question.

It took 2 days to sign up and 5 weeks to close my account with Leaders along with all
the charges. They also never told me that another legitimate company "Authnet" would
also be charging me. Authnet actually apologized and refunded me AND did it the
same day "over the phone" while Leaders made me send in faxes and kept charging
for over a month. HOW DO THESE COMPANY'S GET AWAY WITH THIS RAPE?
BEWARE OF LEADERS AND READ THE FINE PRINT.

They are a rip off! Used them for several years and the fees kept going up and up...I have had multiple unexplained charges...they have literally caused me to lose hundreds of dollars with their lousy explanations of things! STAY AS FAR AWAY FROM THEM AS POSSIBLE!

I just received my monthly summary which contained "**ADDITIONAL FEES"...of course at the bottom of the page it reads **call for detailed info regarding additional fees. Why? Why, should I have to call...those fees along with all others should be detailed in the monthly summary...THAT IS WHAT A MONTHLY SUMMARY IS! I'm so sick of the inconsistent crap they shovel at me every month. Frankly in this day and age, all small business owners are trying to do is survive, so thanks Leaders for making it all that more difficult by wasting both my time and my money...You should be ashamed for scamming the hardworking folks who have put their faith and trust in you...

These people are nothing but a ripoff, I signed up w/them last oct 2010 and it was ok for the first few months, sometimes they would charge me w/the 9.95 p/mo website access fee and I had to spend time on the phone each time telling them that I never used the website access and they would reverse those fees but lately they have been charging me each mo wthe 7.45 dormancy fee which I guess I deserved since I wasnt doing any transactions. As soon as june came I checked my bank account only to see they took $71.95 on the 3rd of june and have been getting the run around on why my fees have all the sudden jumped up so high. They claim that I have to pay my $129.00 yearly PCI Compliance fees and that there just breaking that down into payments for me and now I pay a $25.00 monthly minumum fee because I didn't have enough transactions, I am seriously thinking about cancelling and paying the $300.00 fee just to get out and maybe call me up a lawyer.

OK I A M NOT A LAWYER BUT ITS FOR A CLASS ACTION MAYBE?
I WAS ABOUT TO SIGN UP NOW I'M NOT NUT STILL DON'T KNOW ANY GOOD PROCESSORS? ANYBODY KNOW A NY GOOD ONES AFTER YOUR MISFORTUNES?

From personal experience would advise staying away from this company. Too much of a headache and yes they "stole" money in excess of $99 to $350 out of my account recently.

Back in late August of 2010 I signed with Leaders after the new merchants account CSR, Brody contacted my company about providing credit card processing services. After hashing out details Brody presented me with a reasonable contract. The contract stated as follows: 1.69% transaction fee on Master Card and Visa transactions, no batch or header fee, no monthly charge fee, no annual fee, free terminal setup, and no cancellation fee. I had my own terminal so no need to rent or buy another one. There was a dormant fee of $7.85 I would have to pay if account was inactive of course. I asked the CSR if there were going to be anymore fees related to this account the rep said no. I read the fine print and sent it over to my attorney for review. I thought this would be a good company to work with for credit card transaction. Well I thought wrong. That From day one I have had problems with Leaders. 1. Lost revenue in tip money transactions. 2. Every time I called in with a problem about my terminal the CSR told me my terminal was not PCI compliant that I would need to buy a new one. My machine at the time was less than two years old. If I needed a new machine the rep that I signed up with would had told me. If the machine was not PCI compliant I would not have joined Leaders nor could they be able to program the terminal. 3. Ridiculous $149 "PCI" compliance fee. If you refused to pay the fee Leaders would bill you $30 for not being compliant. My last transaction company only charged $29 annual PCI fee due tot he fact that I was a small business. Also the huge compliance fee and their so called standards were left out of the contract. The PCI fee is for those that have credit card information on file and my business does not keep that information on file. 4. Poor customer service. Representatives were not knowledgeable about transactions problems (either reading from a manual or being transferred to another CSR for assistance) and/or tried to get me to buy another terminal. 5. 11-15-10 After a month of being dormant and realizing the service was not for me I decided to cancel. I also found out the PCI fee was $149 and would start to be taken out in three easy installments in November 2010. If not, I would be charged an additional $30 for being non compliant. I did not agree to these fees. Upon the information I received and decided to cancel. I was transferred to Leaders cancellation department and spoke to Edwin a "supervisor". See, most companies try to keep your business when you threaten to close your account, this one doesn't. Total red flag. Edwin was extremely rude over the phone when I tried to cancel my account. He stated he would go ahead and send me a cancellation form by fax and he needed it by the close of the business day. He also told me there would be additional fees and penalties for closing my account. I told him that he needed to review my contract because the contract stated no additional fees would be charged apart from transactions fees that were processed for that month. He said that I would be charged additional fees upon the review of my contract. That those fees were unpreventable. I asked to speak to his supervisor and he refused to allow me to speak to someone higher up to resolve being charged "additional fees". I told him I needed to speak to his manager. Edwin, said he was the highest that I could go and I would have to deal with him. I told him he was not and he said yes he was and that he was correcting me. After getting no where with Edwin I hung up and called Leaders again to lodge a formal complaint against Edwin. The second CSR was rude as well so to no avail I gave up. I contacted Brody my original merchant representative. Brody said Edwin misinformed me and that he would have the manager of the cancellation department contact me. Brody pulled my contract stating that there should be no additional fees taken out period. I canceled my account on 11-15-10. December 1, 2010 a transaction fee of $99 "other fees" hit my bank account. I contacted my bank stating that the fee was fraudulent and my bank did a stop pay on the fee. For six months the stop pay would be effective. A representative from my bank told me that if a debit came through leaders it would not go through my bank for that period of time.
On 12-1-10 I called Brody from leaders asking him what the deal was with the "other fee". He assured me that it was a error and that the fee would be removed. Two weeks later I received a threatening letter from Leaders informing me if I did not pay the $99 other fee charge they would turn me into a collection agency. I called Brody again asking him if he rectified the $99 and I asked him again to have it removed. I received another statement/letter in the mail the first of January 2011 demanding the fee. On 1-10-11 I called Brody again to make sure he was working on getting the fee cleared up and he said that it was.
February 2, 2011 Leaders charged my bank account with a $350 cancellation fee. I called my bank yet again to do a stop pay. Since it was after 2 PM I would have to dispute the fee. My bank was generous enough to credit the $350 fee and the over draft fee until I could get this resolved with Leaders. I asked my bank why did this transaction fee go through and the rep stated that Leaders used a different name for the fee. (Right there that is fraudulent. They used another name to attempt to obtain more funds.) That day I called Brody at Leaders again informing him what happened.
Feb 3, 2011 Brody called back stating again he pulled my contract. He wanted to make sure that I was not suppose to be charged the $350. He assured me that this is was a computer error. The question is if my account was closed they should had removed my account information from their system. Brody stated he would put in a request to have the fee refunded back to my bank. If it was not credited back to my bank by 2-8-11 call him back immediately .
2-9-11 I called my bank to verify if funds were return, they were not.
2-9-11 called Brody to inform him funds were not returned. I told him to please contact accounting to get a ETA of when funds would be returned to my account. From there on I asked him to for now on contact me my EMAIL so that I would have it in writing.
2-9-11 Brody wrote in a email "According to accounting, your refund will be issued this Friday and you should see it about this time next week."

I will write back to give all an update if this gets resolved or not. Hopefully in a week it will and I can start the process of closing out my bank account. A total pain in the neck but no telling what they will charge the next time.

Here's some words of advice:

1. If you do business with Leaders and decide to cancel your account with them: Close out your bank account and have your banks reissue a new account. Tell your bank that you might be dealing with a fraudulent company and fees might be taken out. Most banks will understand. Any legitimate fees you owe them can be hashed out and paid with a cashiers check. This will save you the hassle of being charged fraudulent fees. If necessary get your attorney involved in the matter.
2. File a report with the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) if they are taking out fees without your permission or what was not agreed in the contract. Enough people complain about their fraudulent practices the government will step in.
3. Get everything that you do with this company in writing. Keep a detailed record of whom you spoke with, etc. This covers your butt.
4. If funds have been taken out of your account demand your banks do a stop pay or a dispute. For the dispute: Gather your documents for the bank. Also kindly ask the bank to credit the funds until you can get the issue resolved. You will have to get in touch with a supervisor to do this. I am very fortunate to bank with Frost Bank in Texas. I have always found my bank to be very accommodating.

You wait for Leaders to refund the money it might takes weeks or they might not refund your money at all.

Frankly, if I went on line to research this company I would have never been in this mess. Hopefully this might help someone out there to keep them from making the same mistake likes myself and others made.

Leaders is a damn scam. Please stay away from this compant if you don't want your account ripped off (constant debiting fraudulent charges) and given poor excuses. This has really depressed me (a small business owner just getting started). I am considering saying the heck with the business if people are going to be screwing me out of my hard earned money and because I know that plastic (credi cards) are used often in today's business transactions and that it would limit my clientale. Oh well I'll just have to take that risk because this is it. As soon as I get my refund from them, I am gone (the only good experience is that I'm glad I didn't sign a contract with this idiots).

I agree, LEADERS is a rip off, they are SCAMMERS.

DO NOT DEAL with them, you will regret !

They told me I would be charged a smaller fee for being on Dormant Inactive status but they didn't set it up. When I called to get reimbursed they told me they would. They didn't. I called back and they said I needed to fax a written request. I did. They still didn't refund. When I called again, the rep said she found my request but they couldn't refund me because I didn't have an original request on file to be placed on Inactive status. Well GUESS WHAT, they never asked me to fill out an Inactive request neither did I know such a form existed... they were the ones who suggested it and said it would be done by phone. When I tried to explain that to the girl, she kept repeating the same thing. I told her she wasn't listening and she said, "No, you are just upset cause you aren't getting what you want" That is a verbatim quote. Terrible service. I shut down my bank account and would not allow them to debit it any longer. This company does not understand the needs of small business owners. It is terribly stressful doing business with this company. Once I went to issue a return and accidentally did it wrong and they wanted to charge me fees. I had to fight through layers of representatives to get someone to understand it was an error and the first time I had ever processed a return. What Leader's needs is people who listen logically instead of just following some procedure on paper. They also need to train their reps how to listen empathetically and outside the box. Very Dissatisfied Former Customer Who Has Suffered HOURS of Stress Because of This Company.

everybody that says you have been scammed - please indicate in your posts if you left your sellers negative feedback - that would help others make the right choice. we all have responsibility.

I thought I was the only one going through this. i get charged Misc. charges EVERY Month from 100.00 to 30.00, just random with NO EXPLANATION what so ever. I am cancelling as of tomorrow, what was the process all of you went through to cancel, phone, email, letter or all of the above? I RECOMMEND COMPLETELY AVOIDING THIS SCAM OF A COMPANY. SOMEONE IS LINING THEIR POCKETS WITH THE MISC. CHARGES WE PAY.

I did open my account few months back thinking that I would start accepting credit cards. Since I opened my account, I get surprises every month as different fees being charged directly to my account without informing me about the amount .Recently, this month, I got hit by $69 as PCI fees. When I signed up the account, your representative didn't tell me about any such fees. When i call customer service, the only answer they have is " Read the contract". This is not a practical and a good business ethic. You should at least inform the customer what are the annual and monthly fees although you mention in the contract in small tiny letters.
And Now to get out from all this mess, if I try to cancel my account, it costs me additional $350.Initially on the phone conversation with your new account representative, informed me that that is no annual contracts, monthly fees as I don't have any equipments.
This is really a bad experience for me and i would definitely be not recommending your company to others. I will also make sure my friends who use your company stops it for processing credit cards. This is similar to the scammers which are more out there these days.

I have experienced the exact same thing (EXACTLY). I faxed them a letter to cancel my account on May 19th of 2010, they said that they did not receive it. I faxed a confirmation to them to 2 diferent people 2 times and they would not close it as of 30 days after the receipt of the form - then they kept charging me. Now they charged me for July service fee and a bunch of other fees. I am preparing all papers to file a claim against them in the small claims court. Also will put stop pmt on the 3 accousts they use to charge me fees (it will cost me $35 each but worth cutting them off the source). I talked today to a lady (customer service) her name is Imelda and she said her extension was 7574 - she claimed she is a manager. She said the unexplained fee was charged for July 2010. She would not listen that my account was supposed to be closed as of June 18th. I told her I would sue them - she said go agead. So I am going to. If anyone knows of a class action law suit - let me know too.

Leaders is a LIE!
Terrible terrible company. I am finally getting out of my 2 year contract. I shouldve gotten out sooner. They charged me unexplainable fee's too.
With all those fee's it probably wouldve been better to leave the first year.
Service is unbelievably terrible.
Never go with them EVER! They steal your money away. Worst people to work with.
All very non-educated. All they know are about the additional fees they keep popping out at you for NO REASON!
STAY AWAY FROM THEM!
I will do everything I can in my power to have no-one, NO ONE go with them!

Leaders is most certainly a fraudulent business. I am not sure why the government has not gotten involved yet but just most recently, I decided I wasnt going to take them stealing from me anymore. I called my bank and told them what was going on and didnt even realize that I was crying to the bank rep on the phone until she asked me if I was going to be ok. I have used the terminal that I PURCHASED from Leaders only 4 times with sales totaling just $250 in all. BUT...so far I have paid almost $475 in fees that Leaders placed on my account, claimed they would reimburse me for the "errors" but did not. Imagine paying more in fees to use a service than you have profited from having it! If you call in to ask a Leaders customer rep to stop the stealing from your account, beware of a rep named John because he will basically tell you to go to hell. He told me that I was an idiot for signing up with a service and not reading the fine print. When I asked him why was the so called print "fine" instead of being clearly stated, he said that was simply how it was. If you are opening a new business or interested in accepting bank cards. LISTEN TO EVERYONE HERE AND TAKE OUR ADVICE! We are not just whining about a few fees here and there. I understand that business is business and it takes money to make money so I did not have a problem with Leaders charging me fees to use their service. BUT, what they do in my opinion is clearly illegal and they get away with it by claiming that they just made a mistake after they have deducted money from your account. That "mistake" is rarely fixed and if you are able to get them to fix it, they just go back and do it all over again within the next month or the next two months. When you call in to voice a complaint, they have already placed notes on your account so each rep knows what your issues have been in the past. Every time you call, it immediately triggers a defense mode and a statement is concocted by the new rep to get you off of the phone. They realize that you will be calling back the next month when they steal from you again, but the reps apparently have been trained to have no concience. If any one in power is listening...please check into the business tactics of Leaders Merchant Services. The last time I checked, stealing (removing money from someones account by "error" or intentionally without refunding it after it has been recognized as an "error" by the company) is ILLEGAL.

Do not use Leaders Merchant Services! I am a small business trying to survive in these times and this ripoff company promises you wonderful service at the lowest rates. It is the most dishonest company I have ever dealt with. I have all of the same complaints listed above. Tons of fees that were hidden in their contract. The fees usually add up to 10% of my sales and thy think they are doing me a favor. The $10.95 monthly fee is a bunch of crap. Free supply is crap because of the high postage (Buy your own supply at office depot and save on the postage), the fee for the old fashioned knuckle buster is crap, annual fees, compliance fees, fees for daily batches, fees, fees, fees, fees, and you supposedly agreed to it all in the contact in paragraphs which were hidden all over the place. I can't wait till my 2 years is up then they can kiss my A**.
Andy's Ice Cream Shop
Parkland, FL

BEWARE PLEASE DON'T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE LIKE ME
I WISH I SAW THE BAD REVIEWS THEY HAVE ONLINE BEFORE.
WHEN YOU CALL THE 877 SALES NUMBER THEY WILL PICKUP THE PHONE BEFORE IT EVEN RINGS, WHEN YOU CALLING FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE ISSUE THE CASE WILL BE DIFFERENT.
FEES FEES FEES AND FEES, ALL OF THEM WILL BE DISCOVERED ONLY AFTER YOU SIGN AND THEY HAVE YOUR MONEY.

IF YOU CARE ABOUT YOUR BIZ AND YOU CANT EFFORT LATE PYMENTS AND EXTRA FEES EVERY MONTH, CHOOSE A DIFFERENT PROVIDER .

Lizu Imports:
I agree with everything said above. They have the worst customer service EVER. The people on the other end of the line have no idea how to talk. I just got off the phone with them and I'm very pissed off. The company is a scam and takes money from us small business owner w/o notifying them. I was charged $35.00 for each complain a person made when they don't remember they actually made the transaction. This is jut [censor]ed to charge US and not the person who can't remember what they bought. And it is $35.00 for EACH person that calls them! So I sell a product for $5.00 at a street fair and I get charged $35 by this bogus company. On top of this they charge us $5.00 for the worst customer service. So why are you charging $35 for a phone call from the customer and $5 for your so-called customer service? This company is only after the money and not for their customer. They change their policy with out notifying us, they automatically add us to all these other things just to suck the money out of us. When I asked about the hidden charges I was told "oh its in your contract"... IT IS NOT! they charge you 6 different amounts for just ONE transaction. Their contract and statements are really hard to understand! This company should really have a person who knows English and is a professional to write it. I am looking forward to suing this company for there charges which they failed to explain and all the other things they do to make money off us! Due to the recession I actually sat down to read the statement and was shocked to see all these weirdly listed things which they charge us for. And I like how Leaders is posting comments above saying "we'll help you call us"... um NO! I did that and saw your result! You even failed to refund me, so unless you will clearly say "we will refund you" i'm not waisting time calling your company...I'm going to take legal action. How can you tell a person on the phone "no hidden charges" and then when we complain you ask us to read the "fine print"... you record the phone calls right? There you go, there's prof of how cunning and sneaky you guys can be.

Leaders Merchant Services is the WORST, most Fraudulent company in the United States. They SUCK. They Lie and steal from your account. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT STOP THEM PLEASE!

I just got a statement from Leaders showing that I would be charged the same $129 PCI charge! I am a very small business owner (less than $10, 000 yr) and after researching the unscrupulous acts of theft by Leaders Merchant Services, I have become a bit depressed. Almost every month, I see a different charge on my account that was according to a Leaders representative " an error". When I signed up for the service, I explained over and over again that since I am disabled my business is very small and that I would only need to process credit cards occassionally since most of my transactions were cash. The rep explained that I would only be charged IF a card was processed for that month. If no cards were processed, no fee would be charged. That was a lie. When I called in to have the charges removed, I was told that my account would be credited for the past three charges that were "errors". Another lie. What I got instead was a letter stating how sorry Leaders was in regard to the fact that they were now having to "pass on" new fees to me that were being passed on to them by the banking industry. So I can expect to pay about $5 per month in addition to $0 which is what I am supposed to be charged if I dont use the terminal! The next day I got another letter from them stating that I was going to be charged the $129 PCI fee. They also charged me a $15 penality for not having my computer checked by a certain time to ensure that it was PCI compliant. I was never informed about a compliance check date. When I asked how would I know when to go through the PCI compliance check in the future, I was told that there was no particular date and that the best thing they could advise me to do was to call back every two months to see if I was due for another compliance check. If I dont find out in time, I will be charged another $15 penality. All of this trouble and I have only used the terminal five times in the last year for transactions that totaled about $200! I dont even have the $129 to pay them this fee. The funds that they took out of my bank account to pay this fee were from my social security check.

So far, it has cost me more money to have this credit card terminal than I have made with it! The guy who assisted me with opening my account seemed to be so nice. I trusted him and now I feel ashamed and embarrased because my instinct told me that the offer he was giving me was too good to be true. I spoke to him for about an hour making sure that I understood that I would ONLY be charged if I used the terminal along with the card processing fees. $9.99 per month (if I used the terminal) plus processing fees were to be my ONLY costs! According to him, he wanted to help me and was even going to waive the annual fee to show his support for small business owners like myself. I dont know what to do at this point. But just like the others that complained here, if you are looking for a credit card processing company, DO NOT go with Leaders Merchant Services. It is a bait and switch scam and the sad part is that they apparently do not have a concious nor do they feel remorse for stealing from people who they convince that they are trustworthy.

I just signed up with this company yesterday- now i am completely scared. am i able to cancel? I dont want to deal with a bunch of bs like all of the people above. My business is just starting to get off the ground and I cant afford to have somebody rob me-