On July 9, 2010, I had an ACH debit from my business account. I immediately called my bank to notify them of a fraudulent charge. I told them that I had never authorized a $99 payment to anyone never mind to PCI. They told me there was nothing they could do since it was an ACH withdrawal and I had to deal with the company directly. I do have a shopping cart software and I am aware of PCI but do not have an active merchant account and currently do not have my website operational at this time. I opened a merchant account with Card Payment Systems, LLC back in 2007 with the intention of starting my business but I have been sick and not able to start the business. I previously had them as my merchant account provider about 10 years ago and didn't have any problems with them so I knew they were who I was going to use once I was going to start up my website.
I called CPS to ask how it was possible to have a PCI Fee charged to my business checking account when I had never used my merchant account I had set up in 2007 and it was cancelled for non use, and CPS was the only company that had my checking account information. I was speaking to this annoyingly ignorant young woman named Ria who insisted that there was no way they would charge my checking account if my account wasn't active. After taking my information and looking up in the computer, her next sentence to me was "your account has been closed since 2007"? Everything I have said to this person during that call and the subsequent 3 calls have gone the same way. She doesn't listen to what you are saying, she ends up saying in every conversation that it wasn't their fault, and 3 out of the 4 calls has never allowed me to speak to the person I requested to speak to every time I called, namely the owner, Sy Weismann. Then to add insult to injury she requested that I make a copy of my bank statement to prove I was charged $99 from PCI and fax it to her (which I did). Why should I have to do all this when my account was fraudulently accessed to begin with? I'm spending and wasting my time contacting this company who stole $99 from my account without any prior authorization or notification on an merchant account that has been closed for 3 years. Plus the time and expense to close out my checking account, get a new one, pay to order checks and deposit slips, contact any companies I do business with to change my account information, not to mention the enormous frustration of doing this for 2 months. I find it so ironic that I am being charged a PCI Fee which is a security standard for credit card processing and yet I was fraudulently charged for an account that has been closed since 2007 from this security company who got my information from another company that didn’t have the right to pass along my private banking information.
I again spoke to Ria for the 4th time last week and stated that I hadn't received my money yet. After the usual run around and toddler behavior I was finally put through to Sy Weissmann's voicemail on Sept 2, 2010. I said that if I didn't hear from him or receive my check by Friday Sept 3, 2010 I was going to contact the BBB, the Attorney General, The New York State Banking Department and the FTC for fraud.
As of Sept 8th, 2010 I have not received a call from anyone at Card Payment Systems, LLC nor have I received mail or a check from them either.