"ProMerchant Misrepresented Itself, Broke Promises and Unlawfully Impounded our Company's Proceeds"

My company has had a troubling and negative experience with ProMerchant and the partner and agent with which it works for credit processing transactions, North American Bancard. We have already sent a Demand Letter to ProMerchant and Bancard which describes their transgressions in detail. In sum, however, we reached out to ProMerchant after experiencing problems with our prior credit card processing company, and reading claims on its website stating that it works frequently and well with small companies. When I reached out to a ProMerchant representative to get further information and explained the small size of our company and the relatively infrequency of our customers paying by credit card (as opposed to check or ACH), he confirmed that ProMerchant works well with small companies in general, and would do so with us in particular.
We then went through a detailed application and vetting process which involved our providing bank statements to the company. It was after we were approved by the company, however, and used their services to send an invoice for the one client of our company that had the largest outstanding balance that needed to be paid by credit card, that the trouble began.
Although the invoice was successfully paid in full by the client, ProMerchant and Bancard refused to release the proceeds – amounting to approximately $14,000 -- to our company. It appeared that releasing such a sum, which is huge for a small company like ours but should barely scratch the surface for large companies like ProMerchant and Bancard, made the companies very uncomfortable. They now declared that wouldn’t release the funds that belonged to our company unless we provided (a) formalized accounting statements that are the type that would be kept by large public companies, but not small companies like ours, or (b) the past two years of our company’s income tax returns. If we did one or the other, they assured us, the proceeds would be released.
As one might expect, we protested these unexpected and, for a company our size, burdensome demands. Nonetheless, we complied. We provided them the requested two years of our company’s tax returns. Problem solved right? Not at all.
Contrary to their promises, ProMerchant and Bancard still refused to release the proceeds. Now, they said, they would not release the funds until we filled out a detailed 3-page form that they sent to us. The information and documentation demanded by that form would be arguably excessive even for a Fortune 500 Company. It’s comparable to the information a person applying for a $1 Million loan would be required to supply. Here are just a few of the types of information they demanded– again, for just $14K in customer-paid funds they had impounded in their own accounts : Retirement account information, marketable securities, Automobiles, Real Estate holdings, Business interest and other assets, Gross income, salary, and wages, Commissions and bonuses, Dividend and Interest, Rental Income, and Spouse’s gross income, annual salary, and other information.
Keep in mind that his is the information they demanded from a small company that had signed up based upon their assurances that they work well with small companies. To secure the release of just $14,000. ProMerchant and Bancard’s demand for this type of documentation, under the circumstances, was unconscionable. It wouldn’t take long, in fact, for the time and expense required to gather the documentation to exceed the value of the $14,000 they were wrongfully withholding.
Needless to say, we terminated ProMerchant and Bancard based upon their misconduct and are in the early stages of commencing litigation. We retained a replacement credit company which processed and released the proceeds from the next credit transaction without any problem at all. In the meantime, we’ve repeatedly requested that they release the proceeds paid to our company by our customer. They’ve refused. They claim that they will release the funds in 120 days -- an unjustified delay that not only in itself continues to damage our company, but is yet another promise we believe, based upon their pattern of misconduct to date, that they will not keep.
Even in today's challenging business environment, it’s not unreasonable to expect a company to not misrepresent itself, breach the agreements and promises it makes, keep for itself money that belongs to one of its customers, and in general behave in a manner that does not comport with common sense and minimal business ethics. Our advice, at least to companies smaller than a Fortune 500 conglomerate, is to avoid working with ProMerchant and North American Bancard.

"Excellent"

I got the best service from Dana Brand, she was so professional and amazing throughout the process..

Regards
David

"these people were awful"

these people were awful. salesperson promised us there would be no issues. we signed up on 10/27/23 and ran our first customer cards on 11/6/23. we are still waiting for the funds in our business account, even though they charged our customers card on 11/6, hiding behind the guise that they had a "process". we have been in business over 40 years & have never done anything fraudulent or shady, yet this is their "process to prevent fraud"? i wouldn't recommend them to anyone!!

"I had a good experience with Pro…"

I had a good experience with Pro Merchant. I got the company information on Google , when I called them Dana took care the call. She has an excellent customer service, and provided me all the informations that I needed to process my company Merchant Account, and I got the approval in 3 days. I am so satified with her service.

"ProMerchant has incredible customer service!"

ProMerchant has incredible customer service representatives! I, being a new business owner, called into get more information about obtaining a merchant and Jeremy Pozner was amazing! He was very patient and walked me through each detail and answered every single question I had! The only reason I give my experience a 4 star rather than 5 is because as we moved through the process, there were more unexpected fees than I was comfortable with. The company would do better to be more transparent with that information before a potential customer calls in to sign up for service. The customer service is without a doubt 5 star. Koodos to Jeremy!

"ExcellantCustomer Service"

I contacted ProMerchant spoke to Kate DiDucca. I explained our business model. She took my application over the phone and made sure the transition would go smoothly. Within an hour I received approval and I was able to continue to process credit cards. Customer service is very important..Thank you Kate

"cost us 2 months of operation and thousands of dollars in costs."

our rep was Colby. he promised us their system was fully compatible with our car wash point of sale system. no fees, no downtime, quit if not satisfied.
so the point of sale system was down for 2 months, it NEVER worked with their system, we NEVER saw any help getting it programmed, couldn't revert it back to our original provider. we did get a portable processing unit that only paired to ONE cell phone, so we had to have an employee on site with the owner's phone to hand process credit card transactions, and purchase a new modem for our point of sale system, at which point we went back with our original provider, just because we got nothing but empty promises from promerchant.
at which point Colby ghosted us.
and now we just got a bill from their bank demanding payment of fees on a 3 year contract. this just turned into a breach of contract issue.

"Dana does a great job"

Dana does a great job. She always follows up and makes sure any issues are taken care of. Very dependable. The best Ive delt with by far.

"Ja’Cinthya is an awesome Account…"

Ja’Cinthya is an awesome Account Director at ProMerchant. She is extremely erudite regarding going into depth on what interchange is; as I’ve never understood what interchange was from previous processors I’ve worked with is the past. Great job Ja’Cinthya :)

"Dana is wonderful"

Dana is wonderful! She called and followed up when she said she would. Had all the information I needed on hand. Never pushy in any way. Gave me the time I needed to fully research the information so I could make the best decision for my companies needs. Thanks Dana =]