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Review 1/7/2008
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I received a "cold-call" offering me lower rates for my Visa and Mastercard processing fees from a salesman named S. Ali at National Merchant Center. He faxed me over the rates which were slightly lower than what I was paying and then I asked him to fax over the agreement, including a listing of all fees and charges.
He faxed over about 10 pages which was essentially a contract. The last page of this contract was titled "Confirmation Page" and seemed to refer to another set of documents that I did not receive. It had an area at the bottom where it asked me to sign acknowledging that I had read and accepted the terms of this "missing" agreement. I called to request these documents from Mr. Ali and he told me they were nothing important, "just some confusing stuff about how the machine was operated". I asked him to send them anyway, which he did via e-mail.
Well, I was very surprised when I read through them. First of all, I learned that this was for a 3 year contract with very stiff penalties for early termination. On top of that, it allowed for National Merchant Center to raise its rates without notice, with-hold funds (and even remove funds from my bank account) in reserve in any amount that they determined, that they could demand quarterly financial statements at any time, and could cancel the account for basically any reason.
Needless to say, I understand why Mr. Ali was less than forthcoming with this information, because there is no way I would ever agree to these terms. I just think it's a dubious way to do business when you try to sneak things past the consumer.
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