This experience is true. Do not do business with Redwood Merchant Services or their parent company, Westamerica Bank. They denied the release of a $14, 775 transaction. They gave us the option of issuing the "refund" (note, we never received the transfer of the funds to our company account) or hold the $14, 775 for 6 months. You will not have this kind of problem with other merchant service companies. We provided mountains of proof, including pictures. Ultimately, we refunded the $14, 775 even thought the customer wrote a letter and we had already shipped the merchandise. Thankfully, our customer was sympathetic and paid us by another means, even after we shipped the item. We took all the risk. Redwood Merchant services is the WORST. They are like a brick wall. To add insult to injury, they did not refund the fees on the $14, 775. They have a small risk-management department, they scrutinize everything, they continue to rip off their clients, and would rather lose merchant customers than change their business approach.
