This blog is dedicated to all those unfortunate customers of Pivotal Payments who would like to vent their frustration or expose the company for the incompetent liars they really are.
If you have a complaint or would like to share your experience to help protect other potential victims of this unethical company, please post away!
Great idea for a blog! Lets hope that this page makes it all the way to the top of Google's search results! The more that people know about Pivotal Payments and their crooked ways the better!
ReplyDeletei hope we can have some more people to finally expose this company as the worst con artist in this industry. i could write a lot about their practices.
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I are in the middle of dealing with Pivotal, and they do appear to be the WORST, most DECEPTIVE company I've ever had the displeasure of knowing.
ReplyDeleteWe just signed up for our business (against our better judgement and Google results) and were given a sheet showing four 'modern' POS terminals from which we would choose. Of course the contract specified an older machine, NOT on the sheet we were given. We didn't notice at all, assuming incorrectly that their sales rep was steering us in the right direction. Long story short, we've now had many hours of on-hold time with 'customer service', and many ARGUMENTS with assorted 'managers' telling us that this is essentially our problem.
Are they in business to sell POS terminals and walking away? It makes no sense to me. We're trying to rectify the situation and work with them, but they are literally impossible to get an answer from. My wife has been on the verge of tears many times. We feel taken advantage of and completely ignored. This is not news to other 'customers'. At this point if they don't respond, we're sucking up the loss on the terminal and plugging in our Moneris machine again. They're the Devil We Know.
Has anyone successfully gotten service from Pivotal? The money involved at this point isn't enough to warrant the expense of a legal battle, but we feel completely helpless. Their tech department tells us the terminal can NOT do a PIN pad tip option, while their reps tell us we 'just need another download'. They grilled my wife as though she was trying to scam THEM, asking if we 'specifically requested this feature', when it's clear in the contract that we are a retail business and that a whole range of services, including PIN pad tipping should be included. The nightly cash-off doesn't happen as promised. Nothing is as it claimed to be.
I am concerned that they have access to our bank account and we intend to talk to the bank to ensure no money comes out that is beyond the cost of the machine (which we did agree to in the contract).
Are they based in Montreal? Where are these people? I'd REALLY like to speak to them face to face.
Thanks for letting me vent. If anyone has any knowledge of what can be done to get out of this situation, I'm all ears.
Michael Lyseng
Vancouver BC
@Michael Lyseng
ReplyDeleteYes, they are in Montreal. These crooks are situated at the corner of University and Cathcart streets. Look up from the intersection and you'll see their retched logo.
How much did you pay for your not-so-modern terminal? If you don't use it, they will automatically start termination proceedings within 60-90 days in order to collect what they're really after... the 500$ termination fee!
My condolences to anyone caught in this situation. I am with a chain operation and are having the Devil's own time trying to get rid of these people.
ReplyDeleteHowever - they appear to be more threats than action regarding their cancellation fees. We have received I-don't-know how many threatening calls and letters and "I'm going to transfer to the legal department" promises - but they haven't taken any such action after 6 months, which makes me wonder if it is a bluff - perhaps they know they couldn't win (?).
BTW - rumour has it that they have been kicked out by at least one of their card processing companies.
Hy. every one, you should tell to the people that they are three companies worked together to steel the money from the people Pivotal,Tangarine and LFG. And we should make more action to get them out.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are right, we have been with them for about a year and nothing but trouble.
ReplyDeleteI would not like to be taken to the court, we could even pay 500 cancellation fee but the threaten us that we would have to pay their loses for the reminder of a contract probably thousands
We negotiated lower rates a couple years ago but did not read the "new" contract closely enough regarding cancellation fees. We have about 3 more years on the term but we are sending in our written cancellation (non-renewal) notice now. I might even send it every 6 months just so they get the point. Plus we have a terminal that I have seen chip enabled elsewhere, but Pivotal will not be getting software for this machine so we have to buy or rent a new one. At lease we have time to seek out a better POS provider while we wait.
ReplyDeleteWe are currently in a bit of a "battle with them too. We signed a lease in March of 2009 for a new terminal (which has issues with most chip cards and the software fix may not be ready until October). we had to refax the contract a total of six times because "right department" didn't get the fax. They sent us new contracts to sign and changed the term from 48 months to 60 month!. I'm assuming they thought we wouldn't notice. We were asked, yet again to fax the contract - which we did on April 10, 2010 for the final time. Now, in the last 60 days, they have taken $1200 out of our account. After probably 6 different reps (each one wasn't able to answer why the money was taken), they have told us that they are charging us for the value of the equipment since the machine isn't paid for but yet, they have a copy of the lease contract in front of them (which a rep verified). Of course they say that the equipment is "almost" paid for.
ReplyDeleteStaples sells the Verifone VX570 for $600. These crooks aren't done yet!
I'm sooo tired of getting the run around from these guys!
I too have problems with them. They are in clear violation of their contract. The charges are more than were signed with them. Also tagged on a hidden dialup fee of 3 cents per transaction on an IP (internet) machine. Stay away worst company ever. No support whatsoever just a run around.
ReplyDeleteThey just took out $12,800.00plus change from my business account. My bank is getting it backso they say. I have told them to stop anymore transactions from them or their partner Gobal. Stay tuned!
ReplyDeletepivotal payments has been giving us the runaround for months. unfortunately they have our bank account #. we have never used their company and we told them right from the start when they were screwing things up that we wanted to cancel our contract. they kept sending us the cancellation documents and of course it was just a scam. they never cancelled payment and kept taking $36 monthly out of our account. last month they took $560 for fees for no reason. we don't have a machine and have never used them. they are a criminal company and should be investigated sooner than later. we are seeking legal counsel on this. they need to be exposed possibly 20/20 or dateline.
ReplyDeleteI think they're a great company since they saved me a lot of money and my sales rep is very friendly. I would go with them again in a heartbeat. Don't listen to these negative jokers on here, they complain about every service from the cable companies to their telephone provider. GO with Pivotal if you want to save money and be treated friendly.
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ReplyDeleteI see... so because YOU have had no problems with the company that means all the rest of us are 'jokers'... thanks a lot, bub.
ReplyDeleteThat's almost like saying that because you have no problem eating 3 square meals a day, that means there is no world hunger and hungry people are just whiners.... give me a break!
I would really like you to give us all examples of their great savings and friendly customer service.... because we could all use a good laugh.
My problem started in September 2008. A salesman named Marvin Taylor Ebanks wooed me for over 3 months to switch from Chase PMT. They promised lower rates...aeroplan...updated systems etc. Oct 08...then the system kept crashing and we could get no customer service. They charged several of my customers multiple times for transactions that did not go through. Funnily, Mr. Taylor Ebanks, who had assured me that I had a direct line to him for any problems had then left the company or so they said. On December 23rd our machines went down for about the 30th time and that is when I finally decided that I was crazy to continue with them. And get this...$6000 owed to one of my stores was not deposited and it took me months to get it back.
ReplyDeleteI had to prove to them that there was money missing. I sent my terminals back to the loan sharks at LFG in February 2009 and switched back to Chase. I HAD TO CLOSE MY BANK ACCOUNT AND ANYONE DEALING WITH THEM SHOULD JUST TAKE THE FINANCIAL HIT for that and get rid of Pivotal. Just make sure that all of your deposits are in your account before you do this. Your bank will support you when you explain what is happening but they have a very hard time stopping these companies from taking money from you once you have given them permission. My bank gave me free cheques and waived some service charges to lessen the blow.
After that LFG harrassed me for months by phone (at home) and on paper. I always had a pleasant conversation with them and just continued to say that the equipment did not work, they did not attempt to fix it and they could take up the whole situation with Pivotal...oh ya I always reminded them that they were dirty filthy crooks and that they would never get a cent from me. They wanted about $5000 x three stores and at one point were bartering with me for half or something but I just kept insulting them everytime they called. The best way to treat a collection person is to act just like they do. They insist that you pay and you tell them to go to hell because there was really nothing to pay for. The contract was broken by them by not providing service. I haven't heard from them for about 6 months.
Now Pivotal has started sending threatening letters; imagine after almost two years. I intend to deal with them the same way. In fact sometimes I just call them up to harass them about how ashamed they should be for trying to steal money from innocent business people.
I THINK THAT ANYONE WHO CAN SHOULD HARASS THEM AS MUCH AS THEY HAVE HARASSED US...DAILY OR AT LEAST WEEKLY. HERE ARE TWO NUMBERS Sandra Plescia 877 462 7486 and Marianne Tawa aka Valeris Ruff?? 514 227 6912. If you have trouble with controversy you will have trouble dealing with them. You have to be firm and rude or they just don't listen.
When I unplugged my Pivotal terminals, which by the way were recalled around March 2009, my lawyer sent letters to Global, LFG and Pivotal stating that my contract with them was void because they did not live up to many things in it. LFG and Pivotal claimed that they never received these letters and so I resent them. Then they said they still did not receive them. I told them that I would be happy to send it one or more times but first I needed a cheque from them for about $90 as I figured it would take about one hour of my time to do so! Never heard about that again.
One last note...in April 2010 Pivotal contacted me to sign up! again!. I went through the whole process with them right down to just before signing. I recorded all the verbal promises of the salesperson which were the same as in 2008. And she was the same kind of slimy B that Marvin Taylor Ebanks was. She said "Oh, do you have any childre?" Why do they want to know that..so that they can threaten to brake their legs!!!
GET RID OF THEM AND DON'T BACK DOWN.
Pivotal might be the worst company ever in the card processing. I cancelled 4 months ago and they told me I had another 2 years to the terminal lease, so Instead of paying $900 right away I decided to keep the terminal and they would take the fees every months..
ReplyDeleteBut after 4 months I told myself I should get rid of it and I faxed the cancellation document.
Since 2 months, no news.. no phone call.. nothing.
Today they took $14,922.00 CND from our bank account. Of course we denied it and it got returned. Im ready to fight and will contact medias, lawyers and anyone who can investigate on their business. If any of you want to join or give info, contact me at pilote@driftthing.com
Great news everyone!
ReplyDeleteAll payment processors (including con-jobs like Pivotal Payments) are required to follow a new code of conduct that provides customers like us with some much needed rights. Many of the problems that people are having with Pivotal will be solved by this legislation.
This means that as of August 16th:
- A 90-day notice must be given before rates or fees not previously negotiated can be implemented
- During the 90-day period, anyone given notice of a fee or rate increase can exit their contract without penalty where their contract does not have a transparent fee/rate schedule outlining clearly future rate and fee increases
- No "negative option" billing or systems implementation will be allowed
- No business will be obliged to accept a debit system other than Interac just because they accept that company's credit card system
- And many other rules have now been implemented to help protect merchants. For a full list of rules contained in the Code of Conduct visit:
http://www.fin.gc.ca/n10/data/10-049_1-eng.asp
Also, beginning on February 17, 2011:
- Detailed statements will be required by credit/debit card companies outlining, for example, the number and volume of transactions for each type of payment transaction. This delay is in order to allow the credit card and debit companies time to reprogram their systems to provide this new level of detail.
KNOW YOUR NEW RIGHTS!
Yes wow thank you!!! Exactly what I was looking for !
ReplyDeleteI was also contacted by Marvin Taylor Ebanks over 2 years ago. I had nothing but trouble including double billings, withdrawal of air mile incentives and 2 periods where they collected my money for over a week each time and did not deposit in my account. After many stress filled days communicating with them and myself and my staff they finally stated the first time we were a new account [we had been with them several months] and the second time the y had a system failure. The second time they had $20000.00 of my money and we were having trouble paying suppliers and payroll. Finally we went to another provider, TD Cnada Merchant Service and we also bank with TD CanadaTrst. We now have some leverage. My assistant negotiated a payout of approximately $800.00 which we were told to leave in our account on the 26th of the month. A few days later they withdrew over $12000.00 and their partner in crime Global Payments who we have no contract with whatsoever withdrew $300.00. Our bank retrieved the money and we have subsequently closed that account. I am considering getting in touch with the RCMP commercial crime division for theft, the BBB for obvious reasons and the Ministry of Industry. I believe they have breached their contract with me on several occasions and am preparing to send them a bill for time spent and damages. If they refuse to pay immediately I will send it into collections naming both Snadra Plescai and Marianne Tawa as codefendants with Pivotal Payments. I am looking forward to having my case heard in court and am now a man on a mission. They have invigorated my life and I hope I can get others to join me.
ReplyDeleteYou are all a bunch of cry babies!!! Pivotal RULES!!!!
ReplyDeleteThe guy calling us cry babies must work for Pivotal. Why would he say Pivotal rules? Maybe he could expound on how wonderful they are, preferably under oath in a courtroom with a lie detector attached to him. Then we could put him away with the rest of the crooks there.
ReplyDeleteTo Anonymous from 3 posts ago:
ReplyDeleteIf you ever do go to court against Pivotal Payments in the Montreal area and need someone to testify to support your claims of terrible service, I would be glad to show up. While my case was not as extreme as yours, I still went through hell and ended up paying the termination fee just to rid myself of them.
Just post here again when you decide to actually go and I'm sure others will be glad to take your side and hopefully win your battle.
Good luck!
Thanks Kosh. I have sent Pivotal a letter stating my case and my refusal to pay. The ball is in their court.I'm a patient guy. My lawyer pointed out that there is an arbitration clause in the contract that they must enact before they sue you. You mutually have to agree to an arbitrator, however if you continually cannot find one to agree to where do they go from there. I am going to reread this clause and if it is so then it would appear I have the option of continually rejecting any arbitrator put forward. Interesting, n'est ce pas?
ReplyDeleteGot 2 calls from the lady at Pivotal. Stating that my 14,950.xx amount have been rejected by my bank and I still have to pay this cancellation fee. That I HAVE agreed to these terms and condition.. FALSE ! loool !!
ReplyDeleteI denied the call and refered her directly to my lawyer. I'll keep you posted on more info.
Get a new bank account number Onderbodykit as they will keep trying to extract money out of yours probably when you are on vacation. They are vultures!
ReplyDeleteThis company is something else. I have the same story as so many have posted already. Global took $14,390 out of my account (which I had reversed immediately) when I cancelled my contract. I am seeing a pattern here with Global as so many have an amount similar to mine charged to their account. Where do they come up with this amount? They would not send me a statement itemizing this amount. Now the phone calls of harrassment are starting from them.
ReplyDeleteI told them during one phone call that they were not following any code of conduct set out by Ministry of Finance and they said they knew nothing of a "code of conduct - could I please fax it to them so they could forward it to their legal department". Liars!! This call took place in late August. Then they wondered what I would settle with them. When I said $195.00 - she said "good luck, I'll send this straight to Legal".
I have also sent off a letter to the Ministry of Finance telling them about my whole story with Pivotal/Global/LFG. No answer back. I get the feeling that we have sympathy however everyone is glad it is my problem and not theirs. What will get them off our backs?
Look up the arbitration clasue and discuss it with your lawyer. My lawyer says you have the right to continually refuse arbitration. Make a list of all the ways they screwed you over and send them a letter by registered mail staing you will be sending them a bill for all your wated time and effort. make sure your bill is larger than their bill. If they threaten to send your business and/or you personally to collections advise them you will be sending your bill to them to collections naming them personally including anyone whom you have spoken to there. Treat them with the same didain that they treat you and see how they like it. Screen your calls and advise your staff to advise them when they are calling that you are recording your conversation with them for quality purposes in front of a witness.
ReplyDeleteI am having a terrible time with LFG. They say it a non-cancellable lease and I still owe 4400 from a 4 year lease.(I have only been with them for 15 months and VERY unhappy) While Global told me to send the machines to Montreal - LFG says they have nothing to do with Global and they are in New York. They said that they are a finance company only and I owe them!!! Am I on the hook? Do I have to be as rude as with Pivotal? Does anyone have advise for this?
ReplyDeleteTo the post above. Do you have the money? Change your bank account number if you do. Don't answer them on the phone, advise them you will only accpet email, fax, mail or courier for correspondence.Get ready to prepare documentation and send them a bill if necessary!
ReplyDeleteI have taken back my money from Pivotal Payments. Pivotal Payments are thieves and Pivotal Payments should be treated as the thieves Pivotal Payments are.Mentioning Pivotal Payments and the thieves that Pivotal Payments are should bring Pivotal Payments up in any blogs.
ReplyDeleteWhen you sign up with Pivotal Payments, they open up accounts on your behalf with Global Payments for Visa and MasterCard, and with LFG for the terminals. The only thing that Pivotal Payments handles themselves is Debit. I would presume that Pivotal Payments gets a commission from LFG for every sucker they put on a non-cancellable lease.
ReplyDeleteHere is my story:
ReplyDeleteI took over a small grocery store in the end of May. Since the X-owner of the store was using Pivotal's service, I applied for the ownership transfer. The terminal started to work since middle of July, and the agent of their company told me that once I close the batch, I should receive the money within 48 hours. However, it did not happen. I called them almost everyday, but the only thing they said was they were investigating and the agents assured me that the fund will be credited to my account.
I went on using the terminal for about four weeks, and finally one agent suggested me to stop using the terminal till every thing is done. I took the advise and wait for two weeks. Till the end of July, I could not help going to their office (I'm lucky to be in Montreal) and talk to them face-to-face. It turned out that they send all the money to the X-owner's account, which turned out not to be the worst thing. Then they said they will fix the problem, wave my application fee.
By the end of July, they called me and said the ownership transfer was complete and I could use the terminal with no problem. This time I was smart to try only three transactions, but still I did not receive the money. At the begining of August, I call them again and they asked me to send them the batch close report and bank statement, and so did I. At that time I made application to Moneris solution, which my friend is using. The Moneris solution works well till now.
In the middle of August, I finally got one transaction from Pivatol Payment, where they charged me $9.25. I believe it was the commision fee. Since it was a small amount of money, I did nothing. At the end of August, I called them again and telling them I did not received the fund for the transactions I tried at early August. The agent (same one whom I contacted at early August) told me to send them my banking statement, and he told me that my case will be "escalated". I sent them again, but I don't think they can make it. Then I contact with their cancellation department to cancel the "service". In the middle of September they charged me $22.30, which I kicked back yesterday. I will take the advices from this Blog (Thanks for this blog) and see what they will do. Sure I will keep you guys posted.
I wish i had seen this blog a month ago I signed up 3 location for a total of 14 terminals and I am already having problems i.e. missing $ 8000 from my account transactions that have been processed terminals that don't work, terminals that have not been received. I have been on hold for over 50 minutes now waiting for tech support.
ReplyDeleteI won't wait to many days for resolutions to these matters Next week I will plug in my moneris machines again (which we haven't sent back yet) and call my lawyers.
Never ever ever do business with Pivotal. They are by far the worst people I have ever dealt with. They lie, cheat and steal. You can never get hold of anyone and are put on hold for hours. Funds are slow, mystery fees show up and their staff are incompetent. Tell everyone you know not to use them or they too will become as frustrated as everyone here.
ReplyDeleteWatch out for the way Pivotal will steal from you. If you do not call them about funds that are not put into your account, they will keep the money. Until you call to have them push the funds through with the exact date and amount, they will not do it. Of course this takes many hours on the phone and my settlement would show "out of balance" at least weekly. I found out too late that they are crooks and am stuck with a non-cancellable lease also along with their harrassing phone calls. Pass the word along - DO NOT DEAL WITH PIVOTAL1!!!!!
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ReplyDeleteJesse still works for Pivotal / Charge National or whatever they are calling themselves today. When asking about some of the fees that Pivotal is known for, he claimed that these were all rumours and not at all accurate. He went on to trash-talk any and every other provider. I wonder how he sleeps at night!
ReplyDeleteI took my money back from Pivotal Payments, closed the account,opened another account. I have refused from the beginning to to answer calls from Pivotal Payments. I tell Pivotal Payments that they can fax, email, send by mail, registered or otherwise any correspondence Pivotal Payments wants to send us. I also sent Pivotal Payments a letter that I would get every government agency including the police and Ministry of Industry to investigate Pivotal Payments. I showed this very irate letter to my lawyer who suggested it was better for me to send this letter than for him to bother sending a letter to their legal department. My lawyer happens to be an old friend. Haven't heard from Pivotal Payments since. Everytime I go on the internet and say something about Pivotal Payments I mention them as muc as possible. I am told by my director of marketing that the Google search engine looks for this and brings them higher up in the rankings. Hopefully we will be up there with The Switchboards, another group who despises Pivotal Payments. Funny how so much slime such as Pivotal Payments come out in a recession. Thankfully with more time on our hands more business owners will take the time to vent about companies like Pivotal Payments.
ReplyDeleteTo the previous poster:
ReplyDeleteWant to find even more places to post comments about Pivotal Payments? Try checking the blog for Merchant Maverick, the forums at RedFlagDeals, the forums at RipOffReports, and many others. There are plenty of other disgruntled customers out there.
And don't forget, like any crooked operation, they operate under different names to avoid prosecution; try searching for Tangerine Payments and Cardex.
i was in the process of opening up my office and decided to get credit card processing so i signed up with pivotal..ran a couple payments then they cancelled my account bc my office was not sufficient for them bc we were renovating still but they already gave me the green light..bc i ran these payments they told me i would either have to refund or wait 6 months but i am stuck having to pay all these fees and be unprofessional with my customers. so i just put refunds in and this moment still havnt given me confirmation of these and im stuck paying fees and never recieved a dime from any payments run..this company is joke..dont ever deal with them..everyone here needs to file claims with attorney general, ftc, bbb, and ripoff report and get them shut down
ReplyDeleteI am currently in a battle with Pivotal now and am at a standstill. How can what they are doing be legal? Assuming they can extend your contract without your approval, at any given time for any reason, and if you cancel, too bad for you it'll cost you. I am not going down without a fight, lawyer, Better business bureau, Banking commissioner. This is unreal. Someone has to be willing to help the small business man here.
ReplyDeleteI have been battling with Pivotal Payments since I signed my contract. I was promised that the system was chip ready... NOT! I was told that I could accept tips through the terminal and they kept saying that it would work just give a couple of days... 2 years later, I pretended that the terminal was broken... got a new one with the tip function finally... not before I lost 2 years in tip revenue!
ReplyDeleteDouble billing of fees is a normal thing: here is my latests email to them:
"what is a PCI compliance fee? I was charged it 3 TIMES!!!!! In November 2009?????? Along with my regular bill. Every time I try to reconcile your statements, I become more infuriated with your service and charges!!!!!
This service was supposed to save me money and it is costing way more than any other service I have had. These charges are fictitious and need to be reimbursed right away.
I am not authorizing you to take any more fees without an explanation. I have 2 accounts and should only be charged for those 2 accounts.
3 X $99 plus GST for PCI compliance fee ? not correct ! Fix it now!
March 1/10 - $184.49 – what is it for?
Feb 2010 CDN online account Statement shows a credit for $62.84. I don’t see the credit in my account.
Feb 28/10 statement: $75 credit. Don’t see it in my account either.
Apr 1/10: charge for $41.72 from my CAD account – not on your statements???
May 3/10: charge for $99.53 from my CAD account – not on your statements???
June 2010 CDN statement: Fees at $79.50, my account was debited $79.51 on July 15???
Jul 2/10: charge for $34.44 from my CAD account – not on your statements???
Aug 3/10: charge for $33 from my CAD account – not on your statements???
Sep 1/10: charge for $38.06 from my CAD account – not on your statements???"
Kara,
ReplyDeleteMy best advice is to you is to cut your losses and cancel your service... the aggravation will never end and the surcharges and extra fees will never stop no matter how much you scream at them. Is all the wasted time you put into trying to balance your account, as well as the endless hours on the phone to deal with out of balance batches really worth avoiding the 500$ termination fee? Personally, I couldn't take it anymore after a year and a half of that nonsense.
I noticed that you mentioned that you had two terminals... be careful, they will try to charge you the termination fee twice. Have your bank reverse both charges and Pivotal Payments will call to try to force you to pay... but they'll settle for 500$. That's been my experience.
The terminals you have are probably on a non-cancellable 4-year lease so even if you cancel your contract with Pivotal, you will still be responsible for that terminal loan. Furthermore, you must return the terminals to LFG in the United States at your own expense. If you try to return them to Pivotal in Montreal, you probably will never see them again and LFG will keep charging you indefinitely.
Good luck!
I find this very confusing....Pivotal gives instructions to send back the machines to them in Montreal. However, LFG then insists that these must be returned to New York. (over the phone only) No where in the original contract does it give any New York address. There is never anything in writing about this and a clause in the contract states that it is governed by the laws of Ontario (That is where I do business and where the machines are). Obviously Pivotal and LFG are working together to make this whole process as confusing as possible. After reading many of the above posts, we are all in too deep before we realize what has happened.
ReplyDeleteAdvise to anyone reading this........Do not sign any contract either with Pivotal or other Payment Processing company without having a lawyer tell you what it all means.
To the above poster:
ReplyDeleteIf LFG is taking money out of your account, then LFG is the one that owns the machines. Ignore Pivotal. I sent my units back to LFG at the end of my 48 month lease and LFG stopped charging me. Their address in New York is:
LEASE FINANCE GROUP LLC
EQUIPMENT PROCESSING CENTER
132 WEST 31st STREET, 15th FLOOR
NEW YORK, NY 10001
U.S.A.
Make sure your contract numbers are clearly marked on the outside of the box as well as on a sheet of paper inside the box. Don't give them any reason to not process your return!
I used to work there so if you have questions I'd be glad to answer them.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete1. Yes I worked in the montreal office.
ReplyDelete2. There is no way. They have you in a contract and they can hold you to it. The only way I have seen it done is by keep calling with the complaints you have. Everyday if necessary. They might let you leave just to get rid of you.
3. To my knowledge they do all collections in house.
4. I know they have an in house lawyer, but again to my knowledge that lawyer is only to defend Pivotal.
5. LFG is a different company. I would have no idea how to get rid of them at all.
If you are looking to get rid of Pivotal and LFG, my best advice would be to stop paying them. Change your bank account. When they cancell your account they will try to charge you all the fees they technically are entitled to. Refuse to pay them, wait until thier collection team calls you and negotiate a much lower final payment.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteYou cannot get rid of LFG as they are a 3rd party leasing company. If you default on the lease, they will pursue you and your credit will be affected. Your best bet is to continue paying the monthly lease. It is the least of your concerns as it is likely only about $30 or $40 / month. The real fees come from Pivotal.
ReplyDeleteTo Anonymous who worked at Pivotal:
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the time to answer our questions!
I'd really like to know:
1. What is up with their lousy equipment and/or software and why after all these years did they not issue fixes? I am referring specifically to 'CRC errors' which routinely cause double-billing and 'Batch unbalanced' messages.
2. Are you specifically instructed not to forward calls to supervisors when escalation is requested? I was once told that no managers were on duty. WTF??
3. Are customers with problems purposefully ignored? Why doesn't anyone ever call customers back?
4. Did you leave because they were treating you badly or could you simply not take the endless barrage of infuriated customers calling in? BTW, if I ever was one of the people screaming at you, sorry! ;-)
I believe there is an arbitration clause that says they have to bring you to arbitration before they commence litigation. You both have to approve the arbitrater who is from Quebed.if you do not agree they are in a Catch 22. This is according to my lawyer, a personal friend. If they take legal action and it goes in front of a judge he will throw the case out until there is arbitration. And so it goes round and round. Check the fine print and consult legal advice. Screw Pivotal Payments before Pivotal Payments screws you. Keep mentioning the name Pivotal Payments in this blog. Google search crawl looks for this and will continue to bring this format up in their search engine. Another good way of getting even with Pivotal Payments.
ReplyDeleteTo Kosh:
ReplyDelete1. we were taught that CRC error are, in most cases, due to your phone lines being poor. I am not convinced that this is the case but I do have to admit that when we would swap out a terminal who had many CRC errors and we would test it in house. They worked fine.
The terminals you speak of are tried and true and in use all over the world. Your problem is not with the terminal itself. It's the software. That was created for use in canada by Pivotal itself. This in itself caused massive problems which they knew before deploying a terminal.
They are consistantly updating the software to make them better but it is still a work in progress.
2. Supervisors are busy people. I imagine that this is the same with most companies. The supervisors could be in meetings or away from their desk but there is someone in charge and on duty at all times, that much is for sure.
3. To my knowledge, no one is ignored on purpose.
4. I cannot say exactly why I left Pivotal. It was part of my contract that I cannot work for a competitor or I cannot say or do anything that would or could cause harm to Pivotal for a period of 6 months. If someone from Pivotal read this they would easily figure out who I am ;)
I will say that I did not take calls for very long(didnt like being yelled at all day). I had a position there where I did not have to take calls.
P.S. If you yelled at me, I totally understand. infact I felt so helpless alot of the time. I would listen and be frustrated that I simply couldnt do much to help.
Now I cancelled my previous banking account and opened a new account in case Pivatal Payments or its relative grab mony from me.
ReplyDeleteThere are few things I am doing now:
1. Open a file in the police station in term of scam since they still did not deposit any money to my account yet.
2. Tell am much friend and possible to avoid these garbage companies. I've also put a note on my community's blog.
3. Contact the media so that more people will know it.
We need to fight hard to clean our environment.
thank God I am not alone in this. I am in the process of paying all the stupid cancellation fees and what not, cutting my losses and am moving on. I still run a small business but am sticking to cash transactions ONLY. I think if most people resort back to cash small businesses begin to thrive again because there would no longer be all these retarded service charges whereas YOU the merchant is providing a service.
ReplyDeleteDo not sign up with Pivotal Payments. If you are unfortunate enough to be one of Pivotal Payments' clients as I was I suggest you have your bank put PERMANENT stop payments on them and all related companies and hand the file over to your lawyer.
ReplyDeleteA big thanks to everyone here for saving our company from signing up with Charge National...
ReplyDeletePivotal Payments have sent out notifications to their merchants that they are increasing their fees! The Code Of Conduct states that we have 90 days from the date of notification to cancel the contract at no cost! We are still stuck on the lease as it's a 3rd party but wow, this is great news!
ReplyDeleteTo the previous poster:
ReplyDeleteYes! Yes! Exercise your rights under the new code and don't back down! Pivotal Payments has handed you the exit door key, all you have to do is use it and set yourself free. Make certain that you advise them by registered letter of your rejection of their rate increase and your desire to terminate the contract as per section 3 of the code of conduct. Give them thirty days to respond. They will probably ignore you, but on the thirty-first day, sign up with another provider and have your bank reverse all charges Pivotal tries to withdraw from your account after that.
As for the equipment, yes, you are stuck paying for it unfortunately. But if you respect your contract terms and return the equipment to LFG in New York at the end of the 4 year term, LFG will stop withdrawing money fair and square.
Get Out while you can!!!
ReplyDeleteWell we found out about the "new fees" for the PCI / EMV compliance only a few weeks ago due to phoning Pivotal yet again to find out when they're chip technology was going to be implemented. Up until this time we've had minimal problems out of them compared to everyone else. We had enough as of today when they bounced our account yet again due to the fact they tried taking out the extra new fees on top of the old fees. We were told over the phone that we'd be "invoiced" when the new fees would take place. The online merchant site doesn't even list a November Statement yet. We also were in the process of a location move over the past week and requested the fax forms to change the address. I don't remember anywhere in their contract where it stated it was a $35 fee to change an address. Sent them an email back stating that we weren't going to pay $35 to change our address with them. It's a good thing we bought the debit machine and didn't lease it. We'll be going to TD tomorrow to try and get a contract through them instead. Also a good thing that we never did give them our business account to use. We set it up through our extra no fee personal bank account that we really don't need. We'll be sending them a registered letter to cancel our contract. Thanks for all the info on the blog. We thought we were screwed until we found out about the code of conduct.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the input everyone. We were considering Charge National for our POS terminals...and now we are NOT!!
ReplyDeleteIf any of you out there have questions I'm sure I can help as I have been in the industry for years and am very familiar with Pivotal and LFG.
ReplyDeletehello
ReplyDeleteWe are currently using Global payments, but were in the process of negotiating a deal with Pivotal. We have in writing an agreement to waive the 3 cents connectivity fees and the 15 cents credit card fees.
Did anyone else get this in writing? And did they go back on their word/contract?
I had sent in paperwork, but I'm going to cancel the process.
Thanks for this blog!
To the above poster:
ReplyDeleteAs you can imagine after reading all these posts, Pivotal's contracts are ludicrously one-sided in their favour. It doesn't make any difference what the contract rates and conditions are because they reserve the right to change them at any time. Mind you, the 'Credit Card Code of Conduct' is supposed to stop this kind of thing from happening, but from what I have seen, Pivotal pretends to be unaware of what the code of conduct is.... why bother subjecting your company to such a nightmare scenario?
I couldn't agree more!!! PIVOTAL PAYMENTS is THEE WORST COMPANY ON THE PLANET TO DEAL WITH. A couple years ago when we first opened I contacted them a month prior to, they said oh yeah no problem we'll get you up and running easy. Contact them when they told me to and they're like, nope we can't help you and it's all your fault. They've had me roped into this ridiculous contract for 2 years and threaten me to charge me 5000 in cancelation fees. Because they couldn't deliver on their product?? These guys are the most whacked out, ruthless, uncooperative people I've ever had anything to do with.
ReplyDeleteIt goes without question. Take a look around on the internet, I'm not alone. Pivotal Payments should not even exist in Canada or anywhere. Bunch of crooked money grabbin thieves.
Blake, I have some questions. How can I contact you?
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know the name or phone number of the owner? I'm getting nowhere talking to their customer service department & I am going to go broke unless I stop these crazy fees they are charging me
ReplyDeletePhil Fayer, Owner, President and CEO
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/managing/top-40-under-40-2009/philip-fayer-31-quebec/article1591065/
Not sure if this # is still valid for him but this was on another, not so flattering blog...
ReplyDelete(877)4627486 put a 1 before this from Canada and his ext # 6888.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletejust so you know, I am here because Pivotal payment solicited me today, I listened for about 30 seconds when they said they were a credit card processor, at that point I said "I'm with moneris and happy" then hung up the phone.
ReplyDeleteWhen I got home, I found this site and read it from start to finish. I sure hope most find this first, I am glad I hate telemarketing
thanks for all the useful info... been with pivotal only 6months but want out mostly because of costing much more than previous provider. Will use the code of conduct act to get out of contract. I'm thinking of closing my business acct. so they can't take further money. Is a certified letter better to send them ofmy intentions?
ReplyDeleteI signed up with Tangerine which is now Pivotal in 2009 because I was getting ripped off big time by Global. We have had nothing but problems with the wireless terminals we got from them ie: will not connect to the network,double charging customers. I have contacted these clowns numerous times about these problems and nothing has been done. I checked my November statement and found that they are charging me almost $1300.00 bucks in fees. The big one is the Pci compliance fee of $297.00 x 4. I called them today and was told that the pci compliance fee is $ 99.00 per terminal I asked them why I was being charged almost $ 300.00 per terminal and they had no answer for me other than they will investigate and get back to me..............Yeah right I think it is time to find a new provider.
ReplyDeleteWe Dealt with tangerine. Closed our account or so we thought. 2 years later they filed a ridiculous claim to equifax for non payment. When we found out we called pivotal (who took over tangerine) they waited long enough accruing charges so they could not be disputed because of their crooked contracts then tried to collect. They just made up the charges as they went on. A fee for this a fee for that. Then all these NSF fee's for these ridiculous charges. We were told it had gone to collection. Collection of course being their own company. After 90 minutes on the phone explaining all the stupidity of the charges i was told to contact the person who applied all of the stupid charges. I could not leave a message i had to be called back. Like I would give these crooks my phone number. I can't understand why this company has not been shut down.
ReplyDeleteAre you still angry at Philip Fayer for stealing your money at Paysystems ?
ReplyDeleteNo doubt just the mention of Mr Philip Fayer gets you so angry your blood boils
He stole from you as he did indeed steal from me
However Mr Fayer made the fatal mistake in think that people will give up in their quest to their monies which he stole.
If you call Philip Fayer at the company YOU helped pay for with YOUR hard earned money (PivotalPayments) you can badger him into paying up
Call Toll Free : +1 8666 932 000
or
Call Toll Free : +1 877 4627 486 (press zero for the operator)
Tip here if you are outside of the US or Canada if you use Skype and dial with them you can call these 2 numbers ewithout cost to yourself as long as you have Skype credit
His email is
pfayer@pivotalpayments.com
Make sure you call him repeatedly and let him know how you feel and what you think about him.
Do NOT let this THIEF get away with his crime against you.
We have found the above methods when used persistantly have resulted in 100% settlements for over a dozen victims of Mr Fayer
Now its Payback to the smug racing failure
No need to say thanks its a pleasure letting peoples past catch up with them.
Would love to read of others experiences with Mr Fayer as we are currently arranging a website to archive his dishonesty for all times.
I am scared but not had any issues yet.. We are onlye online merchants and through plantpayments using Pivatol Payments.
ReplyDeleteI will did not sign any contract or anything so the terminal issue isnt going to effect me however are there any other complaints about the company outside of terminals and associated fees?
anyone ring in the NeW YeaR with telling Pivotal
ReplyDeleteto FOK OFF?
As of January 4th, Pivotal Payment's accreditation with the Better Business Bureau is revoked! Previously is was just suspended(May 26th, 2010). Can't imagine ANYONE doing business with this company with this type of bad press.
ReplyDeletehttp://hamilton.bbb.org/codbrep.html?wlcl=y&id=395261498&cons=y
Be aware it seems these guys have changed the name from pivotal to charge national!! Don't be fooled same outfit
ReplyDeleteMake a stop payment on your bank for all transactions coming from pivotal/ tangerine/ axxes/ charge national ( all of those busineses are under the pivotal banner) and then cancel with pivotal. They will try and come after you but because it is illegal they have no grounds and because they no longer have access to your bank account they won't have access to any of your money !!!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.fin.gc.ca/n10/10-029-eng.asp
ReplyDeleteGOVERNMENT OF CANADA RELEASES CODE OF CONDUCT FOR CREDIT AND DEBIT CARD INDUSTRY - ARCHIVED VERSION
Under the Code, merchants will be:
Provided with clear information regarding fees and rates.
Given advance notice of any new fees and fee increases.
Able to cancel contracts without penalty should fees rise or new fees be introduced.
Given new tools to promote competition, and in particular, will have the freedom to accept credit payments from a particular network without the obligation to accept debit payments and vice versa.
We are absolutely horrified to find this blog and the content within. From all of our 350+ employees, please accept our sincere apology for any frustration you’ve had dealing with Pivotal Payments. We are dedicated to the success of our clients and strive to provide the very best products, technology and support while being supported by dedicated, caring employees. We would like to learn more about your experience with Pivotal to help us get better and, most importantly, to resolve your issues. We kindly request that you take the time to email us at WECARE@PIVOTALPAYMENTS.COM with specifics. We will work hard to resolve all open issues to your satisfaction.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you could also tell us why Pivotal Payments has an "F" rating on the BBB and had their accreditation revoked as of last week.
ReplyDeleteThe industry standard termination fee is $300.00. Perhaps you could explain why Pivotal Payments charges thousands?
ReplyDeleteHey Damian,
ReplyDeleteThat's a fabulous intent inverter you've got there; a very impressive bit of AI. Did you find it in Google labs somewhere? If you run it backwards, does it give you back the original version, or does in throw in weird idioms like the language translators do? Let me see if I can guess what your internal memo looked like before it became what was posted here:
I am very annoyed at having found yet another one of these damned irate customer sites and the sometimes detailed descriptions of our operations therein. On behalf of the few of us at the head of this organization who benefit from the impressively lucrative and underhanded methods that the company uses to exploit the clueless and entrap the innocent, we are sincerely frustrated at the volume of bad publicity that these victims are generating for Pivotal Payments. We are dedicated to the success of our money siphoning machinery and strive to employ the very best in products and policies that maximize how we extract revenue from our clients. As such, I would like to keep as much information as possible away from forums like this one by mentioning our complaints lure. It has a name so transparent and painfully saccharine that our public relations department suggested that the IT guy take insulin prior to creating the account. He asked if we should route all messages into the trash as usual, but the legal department then jumped in and asked that we not deny them a potentially limitless source of amusement.
Once again Damian, fabulous.
Perhaps you could explain the Pivotal Payments PCI Compliance fee as well. No such fee exists in Canada.
ReplyDeleteDamian,
ReplyDeleteA QUESTION FOR YOU:
Perhaps you could tell us when Pivotal Payments plans to adopt the Credit Card Code of Conduct?
PROBABLE ANSWER (IF ANY):
We can't, because if we did, we wouldn't have any customers left.
We have adopted the credit card code of conduct. I am sorry that you don’t like the business practices and that our service hasn’t been what you expected but I am here to help. I have 20 years of experience in this industry and I was hired a little over a year ago to implement better processes that are good for all of us, including our customers and employees. We are upset at the fact that some of our customers experienced poor service and we want to fix it. Like any other problem, it isn’t going to go away by ignoring it. I am here to address your concerns and anyone else’s. Simply send your specific complaints to wecare@pivotalpayments.com and we will work with you. We are all human, we all come to work to do what is right, so let’s work together to resolve the issues brought up on this blog.
ReplyDeleteI am having the same issues as many on this blog. Pivotal attempted to take over 13,000.00 form my account without any notification. When this failed, the phone calls started. I cancelled our account after numerous attempts to collect the 200.00 their sales associate promised I would get to help towards the cancellation fee from my other provider. The were also given permission tocancel my other provider, but never did, so I subsequently incurred charged from them as well. I finally cancelled the account myself and paid the 300.00. Now Pivotal deems they are intitled to 13K worth of Liquid damages...for uncollected merchant fees for the remainder of the contract. What I don;t understand here and maybe you can help me out, is how can they claim the entire amount that was being collected by another entity (Elavon)? THe only amount they were collecting from me was a 20.00 a month. I can totally appreciate that they would want this amount, and I was totally willing to pay that and the 200.00 termination fee, but not the rest. btw...Elavon didn't have a problem with my cancelling the contact as I just switched to them direct...haven't had any problems.
ReplyDeleteIt's quite simple why pivotal will try and claim this money from you
ReplyDeleteThe owner ceo Philip Fayer is a crook
He has already embezzelled and stolen from many many 1000's of similar buisnesses with his Paysystems company
Also don't trust Damian Tanenbaum as he was involved in the paysystem skanking job as well
Crooks of a feather .....
Mr. Tanenbaum,
ReplyDeleteThank you for responding to me directly. You would be the first person of authority I have ever talked to at Pivotal Payments (with the exception of your highly effective collections department).
I am happy to report that I have not been a customer of Pivotal Payments for over two years now. Unless you plan to refund my cancellation fees, there's nothing you can do for me.
Going back to the Code of Conduct, do you really allow merchants to exit their contracts without penalty if there is a fee increase? If you don't, then you most certainly aren't adhering to the code.
If you choose to answer this question, please do so on this forum for the sake of all customers who have seen their fees double or triple within a month or two of signing up.
Word of advice...negotiate and don't back down. They will come up with something mutually agreeable. Posturing works both ways. It worked for us.
ReplyDeleteI really need to find a way to cancel my contract with them. In addition to all charges, now they have addedd $10 admin fee both for VISA and MC since Nov. 2010. I called them to know why these fees added and what my options are. I was told they can get ride of these admin charges If I renew my contract for another five years or pay the penalty (remaing months of my contract multiply avrage monthly fee I pay) which is about $7000. Is that really legal what they are doing? Is there any class action lawsuit against them?
ReplyDeleteIs Pivotal, Charge National, Tangarine etc charging you $10 for Visa and $10 for MC or $10 combined? I got a call today from one their reps offering me 3c for interact...told him I was already their customer and he hung up on me!
ReplyDeleteMy Contract is with Pivotal, but they use Global Payments for VISA and MC transaction. They addedd $10 for VISA and $10 for MC ($20 combined)starting November.
ReplyDeleteTo the previous poster:
ReplyDeleteDon't believe Pivotal when they say that Global Payments is charging the 20$ because it's total crap.
If you were to do business directly with Global Payments, you would see that they don't charge this. It's just another random fee that Pivotal is making up because they think they can get away with it.
For anyone here having problems with any other merchant services provider in Canada - we have the solution.
ReplyDeleteMy name is Ron Seigel and I'm a Sales Manager with Securus Payments. We offer the lowest rates in Canada and guarantee that they will NEVER increase - period. We don't start you out with teaser rates just to increase the 6 month later. We don't hide fees. We value our clients and don't have to stoop to those levels.
For those that are interested in taking a look at what we have to offer please call me at 613-878-8834 and I'll show you just how much you can save with Securus.
This guy says he's in charge...
ReplyDeleteJohn Zanetti
Gérant de Collection
Collection Manager
685 Cathcart, Suite 1000, Montréal, Québec, Canada H3B 1M7
Tel: 1 877 462-7486 x8046 Fax: 1 866 587-9692
Rates that never increase? I thought that Visa and Mastercard set the rates and they seem to increase every 6 months. Sounds no better than Pivotal.
ReplyDeleteInteresting blog. I've been approached by Pivotal and they claim that most of these issues are not accurate. They've offered me what you see below (copy / pasted from the email correspondence. Please let me know if what they are offering is not accurate or what they change. They say that this is processed through a company called Evalon. Thanks in advance...
ReplyDeletePer to our conversation today, attached a quote for your consideration. We offer lease to own option as opposed to renting.
Our rates are:
•1.54% - Discount Rate Visa / 1.59% - Discount Rate MasterCard $0.05 Debit
We offer Terminals for Purchase in one of 2 ways:
Dial Up Terminal:
•Lease to own over 48 months @ $28.50 per month OR/
•PURCHASE: $945
NOTE: Purchase requires a simple $500 deposit with the balance over 3 months with NO INTEREST.
$49.95 - One time application fee
$39.95 - Annual fee - Covers maintenance, technology upgrades & lifetime warranty (even after the final month)
$5.00/mth statement fee
We are also offering the following to earn your business...
$ 250 cash back (per merchant account) for signing up with us.
A 30 day risk free trial of our services.
A Pricing Guarantee throughout the life of your contract.
Please see the attached document, Quote and the 7- star Guarantee.
I received the same offer without the guarantee and the rates lasted one month. This blog is accurate. Be very, very careful. Those rates are too good to be true and don't apply to all transactions or cards. I suspect they have a way around the "7-star guarantee".
ReplyDeleteOk, thanks. What did the rates increase to? If they aren't much higher, it could still be the way to go as the rates are very low. Does anyone have these details?
ReplyDelete30 days is meaningless. Your unit will take almost that long to arrive so by the time you call to cancel they inform you it's too late.
ReplyDeleteThey are puposely omitting non qualified costs which are not mentioned and then added after you send back the agreement. These charges are considerable
And to the person that is still considering working with them after reading these posts all I can say is WOW perhaps someone else in your business should be handling these types of arrangements for you
To the previous poster: I will thank you for keeping your suggestions in regards to my business arrangements to yourself. I was simply asking how much they are jacking up their fees and all pertinent details. Maybe I've missed it in the previous posts, but I don't see a "before and after" comparison save for the extra $20 from Global mentioned by 1 person.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry but I agree with the 'wow' poster. How could you have missed every other posting? That poster could have been more polite but it is not hard to uncover. Everywhere you turn you easily find horror stories. Why even risk something like that? Start from the top, check out the bbb, visit other sites. Don't let these guys take advantage of you. For goodness sakes what other company has business owners taking time out their day to create these types of forums to warm other potential business owners to stay away! And if you know of any it's probably best to avoid them as well!!
ReplyDeleteOk, so you're all telling me that you can't actually tell me what and where the increases are? I will likely stick with my bank recommendation but these rants would have a lot more credibility if financial details were shared in terms of rate increases
ReplyDelete1.65 - no change
ReplyDelete1.99 went to 3.60
2.35 went to 4.20
my costs went up almost 80%
To the poster who needs info about rate increases after signing:
ReplyDeleteMy rates were approximately doubled within a few months of signing up. Quoted rates are completely meaningless. Remember that Pivotal Payments has the right to change any term or condition of their contract at any time and there is nothing you can do about it.
Also remember that not all complaints here relate to rate increases, as you also have:
- Horrible customer service
- Faulty terminal software which, if you have a reasonably sized business, will ensure that you will be on the phone almost everyday with angry customers who have been double-billed.
- Random new fees not identified in your contract (PCI compliance, etc...)
- 48-month terminal leases, rather than simply month-to-month rentals like everyone else
- Non-chip enabled terminals that will cost you more in processing fees but make more money for Pivotal
- 5-year contracts while the industry norm is 3
- When you sign up with Pivotal, you are actually dealing with 3 different companies: LFG for your terminals, Global Payments for Visa/MC, and Pivotal for Debit
My experience was so terrible with them, that like a previous poster said, two years later, I still feel the need to take time out of my busy day to warn people away from this fraudulent operation. Just be glad that the Internet is here to bring this kind of thing to your attention.
Thank you to the poster who indicated the increase in the fees. That is the stuff that I was looking for in regards to the Pivotal quote that I received. Is the 5c honoured or do they jack that as well?
ReplyDeleteThey added a $20.00 minimum which was not in the contract as well as a .15 authorization fee for each credit card transaction which was also not in the contract. Once they have access to your account, they take what they want.
ReplyDeleteNo, the 5 cents for Interac can be modified at anytime, too. I was increased from 7 cents to 10 cents after about a year's time.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, that rate is way too good to be true. I am currently with a huge Canadian association with thousands upon thousands of members across Canada and the best they could negotiate out of Paymentech was 5.4 cents.
Read the proposed contract very carefully. You will see that they do include a clause to change contract rates and conditions at any time. Even reputable organizations like Paymentech and Moneris have these crazy clauses in their contracts.
I am so glad i found this blog!!! I was about to sign up with them and leave Moneris, it's crazyyyy! I wanted the rep to tell me other business in my area who were dealing with them but he couldn't give me a straight answer, that is when the redflag came on and i decided to search the net. At first i was looking for "Charge Nationa"l and it led me here with Pivotal Payments (which he never mentioned in any of our conversation). They told me i would get a 350$ cashback and all the great fees everybody is talking about. Well i threw the papers in my shredder and am very glad i did! I have only been in business for a little over a year and can only process debit card, i was denied visa and mastercard because i haven't been in business for long enough and also because of my own personal credit. Charge National told me they have a 95% approval for visa and mastercard and that they would approve me without any doubts for just a little bit more over the quote they previously gave me. So the quote went from 1.54% to 2.50%, he said it was temporary and that 3 months after they would put it back to 1.54% They kind of rushed me into signing up with them on the same day and kept calling every half hour. I am so glad i took the time to read the blog and research them!!! THANK YOU for sharing information like this , you probably saved me and my business! BTW does anyone know of trustworthy companies that could help me out with my credit card issue??? I think Moneris is way to strict but at least they are trustworthy/reputable...... thanks again! Lisa
ReplyDeleteHi Lisa,
ReplyDeleteTry Global Payments or Paymentech. They are well established and pretty reputable. Also, if you go through a decently sized business association, you will be able to get much better rates because they have already gone through the hassle of negotiating.
Glad to hear you weren't trapped into a 5-year contract with Pivotal / Charge National!
NIGHTMARE, Remember, if too good to be true, it is. This is one time you'll wish you read all the fine print. I was promised 2cents per transaction as I was already getting 5 cents from credit union. In small print they'res an additional fee of 3 cents per transaction called a connectivity fee. You're even charged for transaction that doesn't go through, On top of that, if you want to get out of 5 year contract, you have to pay them a penalty of the amount they would make on your account x the number of months remaining. To make matter worse, this contract is automatically renewed for another 5 years if not cancelled 6 months in advance. And good luck trying to cancel, as you never talk to the same person. I sent them a fax request to cancel after 15 days with them, but they said they never received it and they had to send me paper so I can cancelled. 3 months later, I'm still waiting. In the meantime, fees are still coming out of my accounts. I have a fight on my hand. Government of canada wake up, these are criminals and we need protection. This is going to my deputy, lawyer, news, you name it, but I will not let them win. It's time that this company goes down.
ReplyDeleteWe need more headings to help direct readers to this site.
ReplyDeleteEx. Pivotal payment review
Anyone got out of this company in a good way. Positive news of some kind would be nice. I know I'm asking too much from these pivotal crooks.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't want to be stuck with Pivotal payments, look up Mr. Debit (Canada). They offer 5 cents per transaction, 4 year contract but only $300 early cancellation fee. Ingenico i5100 can be purchased for only $1,150, rented 39.95 month or leased 29.95 month for 60 months. Pivotal payments really screwed me over. Pivotal are greedy and dishonest.
ReplyDeleteinteresting to hear about them. I will start to use terminal in may 2011, and the seller Brian Doyle, told me that if i sign before dec 31 2010, i will get 250$ bonus applied on fee. I told him that i will not activate the terminal before april or may, He told me no problem, no fee no charge before activation. i buy the terminal for 1045$. they were supposed to take first payment 500$ after activation. Guess what happened. Pivotal activated without my permission the account in january, took 500$, charge 94.44$ for activation fee and annual fee, charge 35$ a month penality fee, cause there no activity in the account. I tried to reach the seller at chargenational without sucess, he never call back, finally after some search I talked with a person of pivotal, they refuse to give my 500$ back and my activation and annual fee, the only thing they are supposed to give me back is 70$ of penality fee. and they won't take money before I activate the account in april or may. My question. if I go to my bank office and ask them to cancel all operation from them and I don't activate the terminal, Can I stop it before activation.
ReplyDeleteIf you signed a contract, check the penalty for early termination in the fine prints. This is where this contract can become very costly. This is the number one thing that anyone thinking to go with this company should do (read all the fine prints in the contract, don't take their word for it)
ReplyDeleteREF Post February 23 2011 5:40 PM (2 post earlier)
ReplyDeleteI just talked to the saleman, and the misunderstanding have been resolved, we explained each other about the way it was supposed to be. I am satisfied of our talk, everything is clear now.
Lots of debit payment companies will offer great rates and will give you a credit for your business. What I don't like about Pivotal is the penalty they charge you if you happen to cancel the contract for whatever reasons (Look in the fine prints under termination). That doesn't make any sense. They will charge you the average monthly fee you paid them x the # of months remaining in your contract. Most other provider will charge you a one time cancellation fee of $300 to $500. That's where they get their over 10,000 in fees that other people as been posting that they try to get out ot their account. It's all legal as it's in their contract If you only need one reason not to sign with them, that's it right there. Also, if you don't advise them 6 months in advance that you don't want to renew when your contract expires, they lock you in another contract for the same terms with same penalties.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading everything posted here, you believed the salesman??????
ReplyDeleteyou are a bunch of stupid business owners. I work for pivotal and deal with many smart owners who read through the whole contract and know what they are signing up for. all you angry people on here are just incompetent and don't want to read through the terms & conditions.
ReplyDeletewhen dealing with any type of solution or provider for your business.. do you job and read the contract. done.
If you did your job and honored the rates in your contracts, this blog would not exist.
ReplyDeleteCan someone from Pivotal explain why your company needs to have such a large penalty if for some reason or another we have to cancel the service. Most companies have a $300.00 penalty, not the montly for the remaining of the contract. Why does your company have such a large penalty. Maybe it's because you know your service sucks and you will get your money on the cancellation of the contract.
ReplyDeleteAs for the employee from pivotal calling us stupid owners, I wouldn't expect any more from a worker of a crooked company like Pivotal.
Owners got caught in this contract, like you said, not reading the fineprints because the majority of merchant companies does not have such ludicrous penalty in their contract. They keep their business by being honest.
Another fine example of Pivotal Payments customer service. Mr. Tanenbaum must be proud!
ReplyDeleteTo the Pivotal Payments / Charge National / Tangarine rep: Are you referring to the THIRTY page Terms of Service that you can find at www.pivotalpaymentsdirect.com/tos? Yep, thought so...
ReplyDeleteI've been with Pivotal for 5yrs and I have a 3 stores and I use Pivotal for all of them. I had 1 major issue and it was rectified within 2 days on my favor. I advised them that i'm loyal customer and all the bull**** that I love pivotal and I demand a good service for this. I was then transfered to the director of sales and I was able to get a issue solved in days!. I believe the problem is with the REP from the beginning that signed up the merchants. My rep has told me everything I needed to know about cancellation fees, terminal lease vs purchasing it completely to avoid unforeseen troubles down the road, etc..By the way, the rates are dictated by VISA & Mastercard for all merchant service provider and they just mark up on top of that to make a profit and the fees are there for processing with the network "visa/MC" and your acquiring bank and issuing bank. I strongly, advise to read or go through your contract with your sales Rep prior to signing and completing it. Every merchant service provider has some sort of hate fans out there and I understand why. Its because the sales REP! suck!!!! they don't disclose what should be disclose to merchants and they are trained to not build long term relationships with there prospective merchants. My sales rep from Pivotal has helped me from A - Z and was very honest and understanding.
ReplyDeleteI give pivotal a AAA and I recommend them to every merchant and I have already contacted them about how they train their sales REP!
To the previous poster:
ReplyDeleteMy sales rep disappeared within days after I signed up with Pivotal. In any case, customer service is responsible to take care of after-sales customer service issues.
Please do us all a favour and post the current rates you have for Visa/MasterCard/Debit. I have a feeling that you are not aware how high your 'mark up' costs really are.
And look how much the penalty would be if you would have to cancel for any reason
ReplyDeleteThe rates I pay is what visa / mc interchage plus .45 mark up on top this. This is called interchange plus pricing. Not all processors or companies like pivotal freely offer this to merchants!!! Some agents are trained to get as much accounts as fast as possible and there are agents that builds long term relationship and will disclose the hidden pit falls and in-and -outs of the contract!!! Don't blame the pivotal or similar company but blame your agent that screwed you! From the beginning. You can send a written non renewal notice 30 days before your contract term ends and avoid any fees!!
ReplyDelete1. You're obviously a Pivotal employee.
ReplyDelete2. How can Pivotal / Charge National etc charge 0.45% for Non-Qualified when some transactions are at 0.54% and higher? Check the Interchange rates that you mention. TD sends this information out (I got one as a Chamber of Commerce member).
I'm not a pivotal employee! What I meant is interchange plus .45% mark up! On top the interchange. I wouldnt want to work for someone else...TD has very high rates.. And strict terms and conditions. Pivotal can charge very low competitive rates and as I said the agents are the ones responsible screing you over with the rates ! It's very rare to deal with an honest ethical agent for this industry. But I a sure you all similar companies are facing the same issue...regilatingthe agents is a hard task to endure but must be done to provide 1 face to merchants like us! Cancelations is $400 before during six month in the initial term.
ReplyDeleteIts all the same for cellphone ad car insurances and other merchant services! I tried canceling my cellphone and Rogers charges me 1000k ! because the iPhone was on a 3rd contract and technically it's not mine until te contract ends! Another example my car insurance cost me monthly fee times the months left of the contract! Obviously I didn't cancel any of it and just stick with it.
My advise is to negotiating with your agent first and reading the contract before signings dotted lines... Keep in mind that any defaults in the monthly payments can result in your merchant account being black listed and sent to MATCH file. If this happens say good bye to your merchant account for a long te and just accept cold cash baby!
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ReplyDeleteEveryone that posted negative feedback about Pivotal here has not been taken advantage off but! has not done there business research based on what there business needs and what the key questions to ask such as: 1. Cancellation fees
ReplyDelete2. Negotiate with better deals with the Sales agents 3. Is there any hidden fees? or What exactly am I getting into? Contract length? Non-renewal process? Technical support? warranty? 4. Lease vs Purchase of terminals? 5. True interchange pricing vs non-tiered pricing?
For all the merchants that got burned here has not done there part of the due diligence but very easy just to complain complain complain! rather than accepting your errors in judgment and accepting the consequences! The contract states what the misc. fees, cancellations fee, Contract length, MATCH Penalty for non-conforming with the contract agreed to, etc..Everything is in the contract but yet they blame the processing company about this and that.
Almost every processing company out there has some sort of Hate fans regardless of the size of the processing company is! Chase Paymentech, Global, CollectivePOS, Elavon, Etc.. They all follow the same interchange fees and have simillar processes and simillar fees!!! Face it merchants this credit card service is a Comodity Service and you need the processing companies! The only way to get it right is to have a better understanding of these companies you like to process with and negotiate a deal that favors you most!
ReplyDeleteBeen hassled lately to switch from Gloabal to Pivitol lately ,they r offering crazy low rates and axxespayments who I believe is a third party agent even offered a$1000.00 gas and grocery voucher. But the small print says to check out the TOS online, And am I ever glad I did because I found this blog. I also found they agents very aggresive which doesnt allow u time to look at all the terms. I am happy to say I will not be going with pivitol
ReplyDeleteThanx
Yes we got burned because we didn't read the fine print. This is how Pivotal works, hide everything in fine prints, outrageous penalty for getting out of contract. That is why we try to inform others to stay away from them. Why sign with a company that will charge you outrageous penalty for cancelling your service while most will only charge 300$ and have comparable rates.
ReplyDeleteTo anyone out there who claims that merchants don't read their contracts:
ReplyDeleteIt's true that most merchants don't read the 30 pages of legalese that constitute most credit card acceptance contracts. But in all honesty, it makes no difference because there are clauses in Pivotal's contract that say they have the right to add or modify any part of their contract at any time without the merchant being able to do dick about it. It's a standard clause in most contracts in the credit card acceptance industry, but the major providers like Moneris, Paymentech and Global Payments (unlike the crooks at Pivotal) do not use that clause to rip off customers but use it to adjust to changes forced upon them by Visa and MasterCard.
Insurance on a 600$ terminal that they will propably cost you over 3,500 by the time you're done paying. If you get a letter from your insurance company that says that the terminal is insured through your store insurance, the leasing company should cxl that insurance charge. As for the rest of the Pivotal contract, you're propably screwed. I am going through the same thing with these crooks. You can email me at rotacobr@hotmail.com, maybe we can help each other out of this mess.
ReplyDeleteStay away from Pivotal
It is not surprising that they would take advantage of your mother. After all, they are located in Montreal, which is the telemarking scam capital of North America, usually targeting seniors in the U.S., and prime recruiting grounds for finding the unscrupulous types they need.
ReplyDeleteYeah....can't we form some sort of joint lawsuit against them???? I went to the bank and they told me that the only thing I could do is protect my account with a $20 fee, but that only protects it 2-3 times...that next time the company tries to take money from my account, the protection won't help. Or alternatively, I would have to close down my business account and open a new one, but that will be a long ass process >_<''
ReplyDeleteMaybe I can help you. Are you in Canada or USA? I may have found a way to get you out of your mess from Pivotal. Pivotal payments has a bad rep in the industry and there merchants are starting to flea away from them as soon as the term ends. Finally, there sales agents are poorly trained and are very incompetent when it comes to this industry.
ReplyDeleteI am from Canada, and I would welcome any ways of getting out of this nightmare contract
ReplyDeleteI am in the US and would love some help getting rid of Pivotal!
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone have a copy of page 2 of Pivotal Payment’s Merchant Application & Agreement V13-Feb10/En and, if so, can you tell me what the haulage fee is on that version? I am specifically looking for V13-Feb10/En. I signed V12-Mar09/En when I started my contract with Pivotal, but when a Pivotal rep from the department of Retention (Ha!) was "helping" me with exhorbitant rate increases, she would only send me page 1 of V13-Feb10/En and insisted I must sign it. Aside from the fact that she had inserted a $5 statement fee on the form without ever mentioning it, Page 2 is where ALL the terms are stipulated, such as small-print fees (like haulage, communication, etc.), the termination clause, etc. I asked for page 2 of V13-Feb10/En to be sent to me, as I am signing that "Merchant hereby acknowledges having received and read the Merchant Application and Agreement, and the Schedule A-Pricing. Merchant agrees to be bound by the terms and conditions contained in these documents" but she wouldn't give me page 2 of the MA&A or the Schedule A-Pricing. She insisted the MA&A is only a 1 page document (WTF?) and disregarded my request for Schedule A entirely. I refused to sign anything - I didn't need to sign anything for Pivotal to double my rates, why would Pivotal need me to sign anything to have them lowered? So a couple of days later a different rep followed up with me via email, asking why I hadn't returned the "form". I asked her for Page 2 of the MA&A and the Schedule-A pricing and explained the same reasons. I never heard a word back from her. I had never been charged a haulage fee prior to this(this happened 9 months into my contract) but shortly after that, Pivotal started withdrawing what they told me was a "haulage fee", except it was 3.5 times larger than what is in the version of the contract that I signed. So I am really, really curious to learn what the haulage fee is in the Merchant Application & Agreement V13-Feb10/En, the document that I never signed.
ReplyDeletehaulage fee? no such thing exist on pivotal application. You should check there "TOS" which contains all the hidden fee's such as cancellation fee's PCI fee, Lease fee, insurance fee, etc.etc..
ReplyDeleteThey used to have a Terms and Conditions page but lost too much business due to their ridiculous fees. To baffle unsuspecting merchants, they changed to a "TOS" that is THIRTY pages long and filled with crap. Furthermore, you have to reference it from their website. When you sign an agreement with these fine folks, you are agreeing that you have read their TOS...what a joke.
ReplyDeleteI`m referring to the Merchant Application & Agreement. I know for certain there is a haulage fee because both Jesse Gandol and John Zanetti insist that I owe it and re-send me my MA&A as proof.
ReplyDeletePivotal`s application is three seperate contracts:
1) Pivotal Payment`s Merchant Application & Agreement. The version/date is in the bottom right corner of both pages of this contract.
2) Lease Finance Group non-cancellable lease
3) Global Payments Application (which for me is Elavon, due to different processing needs)
Page 1 of the MA&A is the application form for your contact details, average ticket price, owner info, type of business, etc. The second page is titled Terms and Conditions of Merchant Agreement Page 2 of 2 and it has 17 clauses. Clause #5 is "Payments to Merchants; Other Fees". Half way through this paragraph it says "Where applicable, merchant shall be subject to the following fees..." and one of the fees is "a terminal haulage fee of ten (10) cents per credit card transaction"
If anyone signed their contract with Pivotal in February, 2010, or after, I would hugely appreciate if you could look at your original MA & A and check if it is V13-Feb10/En. If it is, could you please let me know what the haulage fee is stipulated to be, on page 2, section 5, half way through the clause. It may help my legal case immensely.
Mine is PPC Feb 2010 V2 states 10c haulage and 3c communication fee. Please note that this version has 16 clauses and the one I've referred to is clause 4. Guess they changed it around to confuse...good luck.
ReplyDeleteNobody should be paying a haulage fee. It's typical Pivotal Payments contract garbage. Any reputable acquirer does not charge a per transaction fee for Visa and MasterCard. You are already paying a percentage fee for all credit cards transactions.
ReplyDeleteJoin a merchant association and you'll see how you're getting fleeced. I like the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. They've got very reasonable pre-negotiated rates with Paymentech and you can cancel your contract at any time.
Everyone has their games and gotchas. Saying there is no cancellation fee with an association is not giving the whole picture as they are taking the membership fee from you up front each year! As for reputable companies not charging haulage, I've seen it with Moneris, Global and TD. This industry is so confusing. Find someone who you trust and knows what they are talking about and hold on to them. They are worth their weight in gold!
ReplyDeletei am one of those unfortunate customer of pivotal for the last two years, i feel like i am blackmailed hoping they they will go broke or something,another charge appeared on last statement of pivotal we pay already 10 cents per credit card transaction with global now pivotal charges another 10 cents, they treat our bank account like they own. i am so glad that this web side is so alive. i was approached by another, collective point of sale solution but looks like they are very similar to pivotal
ReplyDeletemaybe i am very naive but it bothers me that from so simple services, you processed credit cards take a percentage and if i do not like your services i cancel them, now i have to hire the lawyer before i sign the contract, we were a customers of moneris for about 15 years and after being sucked
ReplyDeleteby pivotal payments sales rep we switched, moneris still charged us 300 because it was not done at the anniversary of signing a contract. i have been reading those posts and my conclusion, soon you will have to hire the layer to get the cleaning lady
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ReplyDeleteJust curious, as anyone been able to resolve their problem with Pivotal. Any update could be useful for others
ReplyDeleteLMAO X INFINITY.
ReplyDeleteIt's safe to say these merchants in here complaining are no longer in business.
you are wrong we are still in business and unfortunate have to deal with pivotal, i just don't want to be drugged thru the legal system
ReplyDeleteBesides, why do you find it funny that hard working Canadians are getting screwed out of their money by Pivotal. An American company that couldn't care less about us?
ReplyDeleteHappy to find this blog! If you check out my own, you'll see the crazyness I've experienced with them. One of their agents (Rasheed) flat-out told me off when I wouldn't let his scammy-ass speak with our Executive Director.
ReplyDeleteCheck out my blog for a detailed account. They had the nerve to call back this morning.
It is interesting to see the reactions of the Pivotal employees on this blog. None have acknowledged or shown any concern for the problems expressed by their clients or former clients. Rather than work to resolve these issues they have resorted to calling them "negative jokers", "crybabies", and "stupid business owners" or mocking them as in the latest blog "LMAO X INFINITY". This clearly demonstrates the corporate culture prevalent at this company and legitimatizes everything expressed here.
ReplyDeleteActually those employees don't concern for the problems at all. Their only concern is how to screw up their customers to make money and cover their activities. I believe they have the ability to fix the problems but they simply don't do it.
ReplyDeleteI went to Youtube to left a comment after their commercial, which I told other viewer to google "Pivotal Payments complains" and google this blog. My comments was removed the next day. I guess a good way to reveal these cockroaches is to bombadier their link on social netwoks such as facebook, so that more people can see it.
I had recently started opening up a business with my partner but ran into a couple of obstacles. We decided to smooth out the rough patches before starting any operations, so we called every company that we were dealing with in order to cancel/put everything on hold. Every company gladly and willingly complied except for Pivotal. They kept charging our business bank account for services that we haven't even used.
ReplyDeleteWe called them numerous times!! Even tried dealing with them but no luck. These people do not care unlike other well-respected companies. Now we're trying to get out of our contract with them, but we want a refund for the charges of services not rendered and we do not want to pay exorbitant fees.
Pivotal should not we in business, and the media should reveal these crooks for who they really are.
To flog a dead horse, I had the worst experience with pivotal for 4 long years, and could go on for days.... but it hasn't ended there!!! decided to put up with the pain and finish the contract, even after so many breach of contracts on their part. Read the fine print!. have to send them a non-renewal letter,(which they never are going to acknowledge to receiving) 6 months before the end of the contract or else it re-news!.. AND their partners in crime, LFG, charge you $25 /year,($200) at the end of your lease for service fees???? (wasn't able to get anyone to explain to me what the charge was for), just got a," thanks, fu" . I was had for 4 years, PLEASE DO YOURSELF A FAVOR, AND HEED MY ADVICE AND STAY AWAY!!! AND,if your in a dispute currently, CHANGE YOUR BANK ACCOUNT, it is the ONLY way you can win.
ReplyDeleteWow. Seems like alot of people here have had issues with Pivotal Payments. I want to assure everyone that this isn't a reflection of the merchant services industry as a whole, and there are quite a few companies you would not have these experiences with. I am stricly e-commerce, but regardless I wouldn't service my clients this way. Also, I am very surprised that someone, not anonymous, from Pivotal hasn't stepped up and addressed these concerns. Bad PR move not to...
ReplyDeletePivotal are crooks plain and simple. They don't care about a few complaints as most people will only look up reviews after they had problems. I never got caught in any scam before, but I have to say Pivotal got me real good. I will learn from this experience. Over 10,000$ penalty to cancel a merchant contract, are you kidding me!!!
ReplyDeleteI sadly have to agree with everything said above, over and over again.
ReplyDeleteI was sold on their Aeroplan program, which tanked. They offered very low rates to compensate - I agreed so long as I could cancel anytime - then customer service manager 'Kate' promised I could cancel anytime without penalty and gave me good rates.
Within a year they upped the rates without notice, then I complained and got the rates reduced - they sent me a new 'repricing agreement' for the return to the original low rates but it contained a 5 year commitment clause - they duped me. I asked straight up if this agreement was identical in all respects to the first one (which allowed cancellation at any time), they said yes - they lied.
Now they've added a $99 annual fee, the haulage fees, and other small fees which all add up to a slap in the face. Eventually my low rates will go up again I'm sure. I pushed as hard as I could for cancellation without penalty but these criminals stick to their outrageous penalties of what amounts to nearly $14,000 a year for the remainder of the contract.
On top of this, Yes, they constantly double charge customers due to terminal errors and are hideous to work with to sort issues out.
Thank god I'm half way through my 5 year contract.
If anyone want to take this to court or to a television expose please lead this group I'll contribute as much as I can to put a stop to these crooks. They have been blinded by greed.
Vancouver
Hey Vancover, remember to send them a letter stating that you don't want to renew your agreement. I suggest you fax it to them, and send a copy by registered mail. Keep proof that you sent it as they will not acknowledged they received it. If you don't send them this letter, your contract is automatically renewed for another 5 years. I suggest anyone still in contract send them this letter right away indicating they don't wish to renew their contract at the end. Also, if they want to increase your rate, with the new code of conduct, you can opt out of your contract within 90 days of receiving notice of fee increase or introduction of a new fee.
ReplyDeleteI agree, i am dealing with the same problems: they keep taking money out of my account even though i have cancelled services with them, and the leased equipment is a fraud to make extra money... they don't even want to pick their equipment up, even though i stopped using it after the first week. They just want to keep charging us.
ReplyDeletecoming from someone that just left the company i truly do feel for you all. i never once knowing ripped anyone off. again i am truly sorry and feel for you all.
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteSmall businees guy here as well. Pivotal is trying to collect their liquidated damages from mw as well. I got letters about them taking me to court annd interest costs they will supposedly sue me for. I stopped with them in May of 2010. Did not hear from them until Nov 2010 when they tried to take 8600 dollars from my account. I had the bank reverse the charges and close the account. Headache YES!! but worth it. They continually harass me with daily phone calls to settle the matter. So far I have ignored them. I agree with the other posts in that eventually they will take a reasonable settlement. I just choose to ignore them for now unitl I have time to negiotate with them. Please feel free to ask me anything about this crooked company. These posts seem to relate to the tripling of fees that I experienced. Which are the hidden fees for the more expensive cards that you can't figure out on the statement.
Hi Kevin,
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your problems with Pivotal. I have the same problem and i haven't heard from them for 3 months now. Can you tell me how they came about the amount of $8,600, how many months you had remaining on your contract and is the amount they're seeking in court superior or the same the amount they tried to take out of your account. Did they give you a detail on paper how they came to the amount of $8,600 or a detail on paper of the amount they're seeking from court.
Hi Kevin and Don,
ReplyDeleteOffer them the termination fee of 500$ stated in the contract. I'm almost certain they'll take it... it's what their entire business model is based on anyway. And don't let them try to do 500$ per terminal. Just because they bizarrely put each terminal on a separate contract, doesn't mean that this should be your problem. If you have any other questions, let me know.
Hey Don,
ReplyDeleteThey haven't taken me to court, just threatened like any collection agency. They are all bark and no bite. I have no idea how they came up with that amount. Supposedly they take the average monthly merchant fees and multipy that by the remainign months on the contract. But according to my numbers that is incorrect. My fee should much higher. The amount they took out and what the letter said is the same. I got the money back from the bank within 48 hours. If this has happened to you. You need to go to the bank and fill out a form saying these funds were taken out ilegally. I had 4 years left. I tried offering them the 500 dollars but they said they wanted half. I said no. That was back in Dec 2010. Since then all they have done is leave messages daily to call them. Hope this helps. Let me know how you are making out. But I suggest don't give in to them.
Hey Kosh and Don,
ReplyDeleteOne more thing, that Merchant Code of Conduct is voluntary at best. Figures the Goverment would wuss out and not put in any real legislation. I also asked if it was retroactive and they said no. So if you signed your contract before August 16th 2010. You are shit out of luck. Let me know if anybody else is more familar with the code of conduct.
Hey Kosh, there's no mention of termination fee of $500. That must be an older contract or maybe in the US. Our contract states that if we terminate early, we have to pay the amount they would've collected from us for the remaining months in the contract.
ReplyDeleteHey Kevin,
You're right on with the merchant code of conduct, so as you say useless. I only realized it was optional for the merchant to adopt the code.
I was promised 2 cents per debit transaction (should've known it was too good to be true), but they also added a 3 cents per transaction connectivity fee. Do you also have that in your contract or did they use that to dupe me.
I already have my account blocked so they can't withdraw anymore money from my account. I am waiting for them to contact me and it's been a few months now.
Hey Don,
ReplyDeleteThey gave me 5 cents a transcation and that stayed the same. After one year they triples my rates via the more expensive credit cards. There customer service is a joke because all they told me was that it was visa and mastercard who raised the rates. Thet did offer to give me back my old rates if I went back to them and they would waive their liquidated damages fees.They call daily but I am ignoring them.
Sure, the 5c stays the same but you have to perform $20 in transactions (400)! As well, there is the 3c communication fee that they charge seperately. What a racket...
ReplyDeleteHey Kevin,
ReplyDeleteOne last thing, you say they threatened to sue you in court. Is the amount they threatened to sue you the same 8,600 as they tried to take out of your account or did they add interest and other court related fees, if so, how much?
By the way, they just took 2,500 out of my account. Funny thing is that I cancelled my account before ever using it and the most they could charge me for liquidated damage was the minimum monthly fee of 20$ x 60 months contract =$1,200. So I don't know how they come up with 2,500. Also, shouldn't they send us a copy of the amount we owe them before they go and withdraw from our account. What kind of company goes and withdraw huge amount of cash from your account without any notice or explanation.
I will open up a pivotal payment suck group on facebook also. Any other blogs or complaints should be posted on that site.
hi everybody, i sign the contract with them on feb 2011 but i haven't activated the terminal yet , i didn't know it was a 5 years term till last june , shit, i tried to cancell it, but no luck, too much money, so now they just take money from my account every month can some body tell me what to do, please
ReplyDeleteThis blog is a joke... It's the same 3 ppl that just want to whine and feel like they are being heard. I actually work for Pivotal in Texas and we go OVER and BEYOND to make sure every merchant we sign is happy. Yes some machines will have issues but that goes with ANYTHING that is massed produced this day in age. My cousin once bought a brand new Nissan truck that spent more time in the shop than on the road for the 1st yr. So does that mean that all Nissans are crap??? Pivotal Payments is in the top 10 list nation wide, we processed more than 80 billion last year. Yes there are going to be a few unhappy ppl but how many ppl can actually say that they have never had any disputes or problems with a new company or product. And as for the 1 guy that just wants to be rude and encourage other ppl to drop to his level. Well he just needs to grow a pair and act like an adult and his problems might actually get resolved rather than compound. Calling ppl names and acting like you are the only person that has an opion or that matters. Wow you have 3 followers. Do you feel special now that you have trashed a compentient company????
ReplyDeleteTo all people that are considering responding to "Catherine". Let's not bother. We all know the truth. The horrible service, unscrupulous sales reps, threatening phone calls from collections, arbritary rate increases, bait and switch, BBB accreditation revoked etc. Let's not bother getting into a war of words with this person.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous from July 5,
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't read these blogs yet, you'll see there's not much you can do. I wouldn't activate the terminal for one, then you're only on the hook for the minimum monthly fee they've been deducting from your account x the months remaining to break the contract.
As for Catherine from Pivotal, at least your cousin who bought the Nissan is getting service. As for top 10 nation wide, yeah right. Now I ask you to try to find another blog like this with people that had a hard time cancelling their contract from any other reputable bank merchant(hell, most here didn't even know they where in a contract), are stuck with huge cancellation fees (most merchant will charge 300$ to 500$ and is cancelled by phone in an day) or any similar complaints as seen in this blog. I have more important things to do than keep writing here, but I will make it my job to keep informing people any ways I can for a long time.
I hurge everyone that has had problem to join the facebook group Pivotal payment sucks. Here is the link to the group
ReplyDeletehttp://www.facebook.com/groups/129462753803262?ap=1
Thank you Don.
ReplyDeleteHi Don. I am Franco Zhou from July the 5. I sent a request on Facebook please accept me. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteFrom: Chris Clark
ReplyDeleteSent: April 29, 2011 1:57 PM
To: CanadianSales
Subject: Weed @ Work
Importance: High Hi – A manager from another department just called me into the washroom to show me a large smattering of weed and tobacco on the toilet paper dispenser in the first stall of the men’s washroom. I don’t know which of you morons is that stupid but let’s say that people are less than impressed. We have been relatively tolerant of some of your habits but now we have two problems, some of you are clearly too stoned to do your job as evidenced by the sales totals this month and you are leaving evidence of your drug habits at work. I have had a Director complain about smelling weed in the washrooms, I myself have heard people rolling joints in there. This is all in violation of company policy so we’re now going to no tolerance, next person caught with anything to do related to drugs at work will be fired on the spot, don’t care who you are. Smarten the f*ck up. Chris Clark
Sr. Manager, Canadian Telesales
Chef principal des téléventes, Canada
Based on these two promises below, I signed on to Pivotal starting July 1, 2010.
ReplyDelete1.Pivotal's salesman (Jesse Schwartz) said no contract required. Later after I signed on, Customer Service said that ALL of their programs have a five-year contract. They faxed me a Terms and Conditions Sheet in March, 2011 saying that THAT is the additional sheet that I should have seen (which I have never seen until after all has been signed.)
2. Pivotal's salesman said that if our business should close, they can find another business to take over our credit card machine, so there would be no penalty for the equipment lease.
After I signed on, I learned about these:
1. A minimum charge of $20.00 which is applied to Debit transactions. This never appears anywhere in the original contract or rate sheet.
2. We were charged a PCI compliance fee of $99.00, which was not in any of the original contract. From the Terms and Conditions page (item number 7), Pivotal is allowed 90 days to introduce any new fees. However, we never saw the Terms and Conditions page anyway. If I did, I would never have signed on.
3. The credit card machine CANNOT process debit card refunds. It will accept debit cards charges, but if a customer returns our product, we cannot do a refund because Pivotal's software does not allow it as of now. A fix is still not available.
4. The credit card machine hardware is able to take chip cards, but the software is not ready to take chip cards. We do not know when a fix will be ready.
I will probably be out by LFG (equipment lease co.) as well. I do not like being lied to. But at least with the equipment I did know that I signed a 3-year non-cancellable lease.
This will be going to my lawyer this week.
I hope people will take this warning to keep away from Pivotal. Like any other business person, I don't have the time to do this, but I don't want others to fall into the same trap as I did.
I changed my bank acct. wit pivotal so they couldn't access my money and changed to paymentech while I was closed over Christmas. My lawyer sent them letters telling them of our change. No response till now asking for $560.00 per terminal. I'm going to drag this out for a long time and give them the runaround.
ReplyDeleteI have been with them for 3 years, everything about the pivotal has been said, yesterday our terminal broke down phone technical support I have to wait till Tuesday for new one and pay 50 dollars for shipping. We operate small restaurant we can't operate without accepting debit & credit cards. We do the manual imprints do not accept debit cards and I know that after we get the terminal I will have to input data manually and pivotal will charge extra. I am tired of horrible service they provide.
ReplyDeleteWe owned a small business and were using a merchant service other than pivotal. They bought the company and without warning, signed us to a contract. When we tried to cancel the contract, they sied that we owed them a cancellation fee. We refused to pay it and changed merchant services. They constantly called but we ignored them. This was a couple years ago at least. Since then we have sold the business. All of a sudden, today thair collections department calls and says that we owe them in excess of $6000 because they claim that they have been providing services the entire time. WTF? Seriously, these people need to be put out of business. Any ideas as to how to handle this situation? They claim that they will report to the credit bureaus and if necessary, sue. Please advise, anybody.
ReplyDeleteI just got another statement from pivotal as usual they introduce another charge for terminal maintenance 10.45 without warning after call they lower to 5.95. It looks to me they treat my bank account like they own. Suppose to be for maintenance of the terminal ours broke down and they send me another one after 4 days but cost us 50 dollars for the shipment. Warning stay away from them.
ReplyDeleteIf they did not notify you of this change, you can cancel as per the code of conduct. Code states that you must receive a minimum of 90 days notice for any fee increases. During that time, you are able to walk away from your contract with no penalty. Contact the FCAC to lodge a complaint as well as the BBB. http://hamilton.bbb.org/codbrep.html?wlcl=y&id=395261498&cons=y
ReplyDeleteThank you for the information
ReplyDeleteJournal de Montreal published a report on July 18th, which revailed an fraud case of Northern Leasing System. This is another crook company we should avoid. Pls google "Journal de Montreal, Paiment direct", you may find the following link:
ReplyDeletehttp://lejournaldemontreal.canoe.ca/journaldemontreal/actualites/faitsdiversetjudiciaires/archives/2011/07/20110718-004017.html
I did receive a Terminal Maintenance fee on my June 2011 statement also. These crooks keep adding different fees whenever they want. Few months ago they added a admin fee to my Visa and MC statements, and when i called and complained, they said they will get rid of that if i renew my contract with them and go for another 5 years. Can you believe this. Bunch of crooks and thieves..... They did not send any notification about this fee, since i check all the mails that come from them carefully. How is that possible to get rid of these greedy thieves? please help, is there any legal way?
ReplyDeleteContact the FCAC as well as the BBB as per the post from earlier this morning. They have clearly breached the code of conduct. If they don't comply, they are subject to very hefty fees. As well, complaining to the BBB will further damage their already atrocious reputation. You have the means to get out of this contract. Just follow the steps.
ReplyDeleteare any of these business' still operating? i ask because if an annual fee and a monthly fee of like 10 bucks shuts you down, i think there might something fundamentally wrong with your business plan.i myself am a small business owner, i own a clothing boutique on ST laurent and haven't had any bad experiences with this company aside from the usual calling in and waiting for 10 minutes for my call to be naswered but not much different from socalled reputable business's in Canada.Thx to this sit though i will know what to say and do when i see more fee's thank you, but in all reality i would have figured it out on my own
ReplyDelete