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My business was scammed by credit card processing company, what can i do?

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fstep2

Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New Jersey

i found out my business account has been getting charged $70/month (i originally mistook this transaction for a website hosting fee) since may 2008 for credit card processing services from a company i have never used. i clearly would never authorize a fee like this considering it's a small run from home business that brought in $14,000 last year, i use free credit card processing like paypal and 2checkout for this stuff and have been using them without interruption since my business started 8 years ago, clearly it makes no sense that i would just pay a company that does the same exact thing $70 every month while continuing to use them and never use the service in any way!

they are claiming that i did authorize this fee by by not cancelling the service (i honestly don't remember ever signing up for it and if i did there's 0 chance i agreed to a $70/month charge) and are refusing to refund my money. what can i do about this?
 
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swalsh411

Senior Member
You can ask them for proof you signed up for it, which may or may not exist and they may or may not provide.

You can sue them.

You can alert your bank or whatever method they have been using to charge you for this service.

You can review your statements more carefully going forward.
 
F

fstep2

Member
swalsh411 said:
You can ask them for proof you signed up for it, which may or may not exist and they may or may not provide.

You can sue them.

You can alert your bank or whatever method they have been using to charge you for this service.

You can review your statements more carefully going forward.
Click to expand...
if anything was signed it was online with that in mind if they included something in fine print under the circumstances above am i screwed? consider the fact that i have in no way ever used their service in any way shape or form
 
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cosine

Senior Member
If you had somehow signed up (even without knowing it) for a card processing service, it is generally considered that you are paying for the AVAILABILITY of the service. That $70/mo is for the service to be available for your use whenever you might need it.

What does "my business account" mean? A checking account? A credit card? A debit card? Something else?

Generally, charges on accounts cannot be reversed after a certain length of time. This is why it is your responsibility to check your accounts thoroughly and carefully all the time. The provider of "my business account" doesn't know what is, or is not, valid charges, unless and until you tell them.

At this point, have those charges stopped. In many cases this may even require getting a whole new account number to successfully stop them (larger banks tend to be unable to stop recurring charges).

The past charges ... well ... think of them as a cost of being free to spend a few minutes of your time not having to double check "my business account" for fraudulent charges. You're probably out $1680. Going forward, make sure that $1680 lesson is never forgotten.
 
F

fstep2

Member
cosine said:
If you had somehow signed up (even without knowing it) for a card processing service, it is generally considered that you are paying for the AVAILABILITY of the service. That $70/mo is for the service to be available for your use whenever you might need it.

What does "my business account" mean? A checking account? A credit card? A debit card? Something else?

Generally, charges on accounts cannot be reversed after a certain length of time. This is why it is your responsibility to check your accounts thoroughly and carefully all the time. The provider of "my business account" doesn't know what is, or is not, valid charges, unless and until you tell them.

At this point, have those charges stopped. In many cases this may even require getting a whole new account number to successfully stop them (larger banks tend to be unable to stop recurring charges).

The past charges ... well ... think of them as a cost of being free to spend a few minutes of your time not having to double check "my business account" for fraudulent charges. You're probably out $1680. Going forward, make sure that $1680 lesson is never forgotten.
Click to expand...

by business account i mean my checking account. thing is i don't believe i ever agreed to paying $70/month for this as that would be senseless. only way i can see it being possible is if they snuck something in about it in fine print i couldn't read. is there nothing i can do about it if i take it to small claims court?
 
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acmb05

Senior Member
fstep2 said:
by business account i mean my checking account. thing is i don't believe i ever agreed to paying $70/month for this as that would be senseless. only way i can see it being possible is if they snuck something in about it in fine print i couldn't read. is there nothing i can do about it if i take it to small claims court?
Click to expand...
First they don't just sneak it in in fine print. You at some point tested one of these services or filled out an online thing for some services and it would have been plainly written in the "terms of service" which no one ever reads, That you had 3 or 30 days to cancel and if you did not you would be charged a certain amount per month.

You would probably not win this one in court.
 
eerelations

eerelations

Senior Member
What fine print? Fine print is always attached to something - usually to the document signed. So what's the document you signed that had this fine print attached to it? (And if you say there's no document, then THERE'S NO FINE PRINT EITHER!!!)
 
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cosine

Senior Member
You can always take up the issue with the original company. But as far as the bank goes, by having not notified them in a timely manner of debits that you dispute, most of those $70 debits each month are completed payments. Notify them now and the last one or two, maybe three if you are lucky, debits can be processed as disputed (although you will have some explaining to do with so many that you let go through already ... explain that you mis-identified those past debits). All the rest, take up with the original company. If you did sign or otherwise agree, you'd have to go much further to get it back (like show some fraudulent action on their part).
 
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