Leaders Merchant Services review: Unauthorized charges 60

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.

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...

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!

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.

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.

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...

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!

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

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!

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

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.

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 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 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!

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 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.

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.

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.

LEADERS would like the opportunity to resolve this merchant's issues with our company. However, with the limited amount of information in his complaint we cannot locate a merchant account under this name with our company. If the merchant would like to contact our corporate office @ [protected] and speak with our consumer complaint resolution department we would be more than happy to see if we can assist him further.

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!