I recently contacted EPS requesting to be refunded an $85 Annual Fee charged to our bank account on 12/03/2010 because, although we initially explored using them as our payment processor (more than a year prior to this annual fee being charged), we advised them at the time of our intention to cancel, and never proceeded to do business with them. EPS is refusing to refund the annual fee, claiming that a contract was formed when we sent in our signed application and that according to the terms of that contract, we would have needed to terminate in writing. However, a closer examination of the facts reveals that they are incorrect in their claim, and therefore the annual fee charged to us was unauthorized and illegal. I have explained this to Amy Diehl, their head of customer service, and received not so much as a response. I am surprised that EPS and its management do not consider the goodwill and reputation of EPS as a fair operator to be worth more than $85. But regardless of that, they have charged us without our proper consent, which is illegal.

The sequence of events went like this:

1) the contract on which EPS is basing my obligation to cancel in writing or else pay the $85 annual fee is an application form whose signed pages I emailed to EPS agent Chonda Pearson on 11/13/2009.

2) however, subsequent to that, I never heard anything further, so I contacted EPS customer service supervisor Dustin Godec: on 11/18/2009 I emailed him "After applying for an EPS account, the only further communication I received was the Authorize.Netactivation at the bottom of this thread. I have never received a Merchant number, any Getting Started instructions, or anything." Dustin responded with some information etc., and then in another email still on 11/18/2009 I asked him "A separate issue, just wanted to confirm that I am not being billed as of yet until the service is activated, and for that I would like to wait until we are actually open for business, maybe 2-3 weeeks. Kindly confirm if we can keep this "on the shelf" until I give you the green light to activate..."

3) as per Dustin's below response also on 11/18/2009, "I show that you will not be billed until you request to activate with Chonda." A few more wrinkles got sorted out, and then again on 11/24/2009 Dustin advised me "All you need to do at this point is let Chonda or I know when you are ready for the account activation here at EPS."

4) subsequent to that, we discovered that EPS's web-based system was incompatible with the Mac platform (that we use). Much effort was made on both ends to find a workable solution, but in the end the lack of compatibility of EPS's web-based payment setup with the Mac platform was a deal-breaker for us, despite EPS's attractive rates. Since no work-around satisfactory to me was obtained, I never proceeded to instruct Chonda or Dustin to activate (as Dustin indicated I do when ready), and quite to the contrary I advised Dustin and Chonda on 12/16/2009 of my intention to stop proceeding any further (ie. not proceed to "activation and billing"): "In the end I have decided to opt for merchant services through quickbooks, which integrates directly into quickbooks for mac. All things considered, this is the best solution for my business, I hope you understand. Please proceed to cancel our arrangement, and advise how I can return the magtek card reader to you."

5) For this reason, it is clear that I was reasonable in expecting there would not be any activation of service and corresponding billing, be that monthly or annual, and this notwithstanding any terms of the contract formed on 11/13/2009. However, on 12/03/2010 (more than a year later!) an $85 Annual Fee was charged to our bank account.

It seems to me therefore that this is more than a matter of good faith and of EPS acting as a fair operator. EPS was unfounded in charging an $85 annual fee, given I was advised I would not be billed until I instructed EPS to activate the account, but I never did so and moreover instructed EPS by email to cancel. EPS has charged us without our proper consent, which is illegal.