I am the sole proprietor of a small business in Indiana. We use a merchant account to process VISA/Mastercard. The Discover Network was set-up to handle our customers with Discover cards. We were only billed for the months that we actually had any transactions. Then we started having $49.95 charges on our Discover statements from UMG*MERCHANTTECHSOLUT. After several months, Discover closed our account because they passed it onto UMG. The charge for $49.95 has appeared every month since, even though there are no Discover transactions.
A rep at Discover said they had the right to turn over accounts to third parties. We received no mail, e-mail, or confirmation of the transfer. UMG claims that it was approved over-the-phone. This DID NOT HAPPEN. When I asked what product they were offering, the UMG rep claimed it was for data transfer storage. WHAT? I have my own on-site network guy to handle all that stuff. Besides, it had nothing to do with processing Discover cards.
The bank suggests closing our account and starting over. They aren't into reversing any transactions. The bank commissioner was no help on the matter either.
UMG claims that they will send $299.70 back into our account within 7 to 14 days, but I'm not holding my breath.
I blame Discover for dealing with these scam artist partnerships and UMG for preying on small businesses and individuals who just want to order things out of catalogs.