Conned by Payment Sense - TWICE

[Nicola3316]

To cut a long story short, I was sold a Payment sense card machine for my shop by a rep who assured me that I could get out in 18 months under the consumer credit act. He was aware that I was selling the shop in the next couple of years due to medical reasons and assured me that there would be no costs involved when cancelling the machine.

Two years later I sold the shop and contacted Payment Sense about cancelling the machine and was told it would cost me well over £400 to do so. I was gobsmacked and explained how we were sold the card machine with no exit charges. He stated the original sales rep had been mistaken.

I then asked about a mobile unit as I intended to do the occasional craft fair and he offered me a new three year contract with an exchange of terminal and the same monthly fee of approx £25. I have now received invoices for the last two months of £19.99 minimum fee on the machine as I have not used it yet, on top of the £25 fee. I again feel lied to as he was aware it would have infrequent use being only for craft fairs which are few are far between but he never mentioned the minium fee each month, which would have clearly applied and having read the contract cannot see it mentioned there.

Any ideas please on where I stand and what I can do as I feel conned TWICE!!!

 

[Newchodge]

If there is no minimum fee anywhere in your contract you cannot be contracted to pay it.

Read all your contract very carefully.

 

[john1989]

Why on earth would you sign a contract another with a company that had already mis-sold you something?

 

[Nicola3316]

I was really annoyed at being conned in the first place. I looked at either giving them nearly £500 for ending the contract, against paying £25 a month on a 3 year contract for a mobile unit. It would be about £900 for 3 years, minus the nearly £500 I would lose anyway. It would have been fine had there not been the sneaky minimum charge of anther £20 I was never told about.

 

[Thermodynamic Man]

The amount of posts that I have read on here and on other forums regarding this company amazes me that this company gets any business at all. I cannot remember reading just one single positive post about them....apart from the ones that their own agents post

 

[HazelC]

What does your contract say?

 

[Nicola3316]

Hi Hazel - It says lots...bearing in mind there are 15 pages to the contract, and in the smallest print possible, I have read it many times (not understanding all of it), and still see no minimum payment. I've even done a pdf word search for relevant words, eg minimum, payment, charge etc and still can't find it. The only obvious bit is Total Monthly Payment: £25.14 inc. VAT ("Monthly Payment"). I am aware of the yearly charge and PCI compliance charge of £4.99 each month on top of the Monthly payment but not the minimum charge.

 

[Nicola3316]

The amount of posts that I have read on here and on other forums regarding this company amazes me that this company gets any business at all. I cannot remember reading just one single positive post about them....apart from the ones that their own agents post

Unfortunately if people are like me you only search forums etc. after you have been bitten..

 

[Newchodge]

Write to them, signed for letter in the post and state that you believe that the invoices for the minimum charge are wrong as there is nothing in the contract that specifies any minimum charge. Ask them to explain why they have invoiced you for this amount. Keep a copy of your letter and of the record that they have received it.

 

[boring-friday]

I've found in the past with similar if you spam their social media/review sites you'll get a refund, with your friends also posting their reviews of hearing there service isn't good ofcourse:
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.paymentsense.co.uk
https://twitter.com/paymentsense
https://www.youtube.com/user/PaymentSense
https://www.facebook.com/PaymentSenseUK

Clearly leaving themselves so many fake reviews on trustpilot, everyone leaving 5 stars has only left 1 review

 

[Nicola3316]

Thanks for the advice all. Not really my style doing all the spamming. I've sent the contract to my solicitor to make sure there is nothing in it and then will try and cancel the contract. We will see what happens.

 

[RChandarh]

Has this company improved yet?
I'm thinking of changing from my current provider.

 

[Thermodynamic Man]

Read the horror stories on here first and then you decide, From what I have read you can use my barge pole if you wish. No doubt one of their agents will be along to tell you otherwise. Same as any contract. Do due diligence first

 

[LMDServicesUK]

Hi I presume you are a Limited Co, in which case your lease is binding from date of signature as there is no cooling off period if you are trading as a Limited Entity. This again is stated in the lease agreement very clearly. The CCA only applies if you are trading as a Sole trader or Partnership.

Re your Min Monthly Service Charge, this is levied by FDMS NOT PaymentSense. You will always have two contracts with PaymentSense, one for the physical terminal (with 18m walk away clause if you are a Sole Trader or Partnership - your only liability should be a restocking fee), the other is for your Merchant Processing service which will always have a Min Monthly Service charge. It is the min in card charges that you must process so if you fall below a certain level your fees are topped up, if not then the min floor level is not applied.

This is common practice across all providers not just PS/FDMS.

It is very clearly stated in the contracts that an Applicant signs, however sometimes this is not made as clear as it should be in my opinion.

However you as a Merchant are responsible for reviewing the whole application offer BEFORE you sign it, if you are not sure about something check it before signing. Caveat Emptor

I suggest you contact PS Customer Service on 0845 434 6001 and ask to speak to the Retentions team and see what they can do to assist you.

I will also flag this post to a member of Senior Management on your behalf.

 

[RChandarh]

Surprise surprise after reading all the comments on this forum i began to read the terms and conditions of the contract with PS. Don't want to go into too much detail but there are significant differences. I have cancelled. I'm sure some bright spark from PS will be chasing me for a cancellation fee.
Lesson of the day - Always read the terms and conditions

 

[Deleted member 226268]

Hi Hazel - It says lots...bearing in mind there are 15 pages to the contract, and in the smallest print possible, I have read it many times (not understanding all of it), and still see no minimum payment. I've even done a pdf word search for relevant words, eg minimum, payment, charge etc and still can't find it. The only obvious bit is Total Monthly Payment: £25.14 inc. VAT ("Monthly Payment"). I am aware of the yearly charge and PCI compliance charge of £4.99 each month on top of the Monthly payment but not the minimum charge.

Why is there not a minimum legal printed font size for " Small Print " in contracts ?
And if there is, why is it still too small for most people to read it comfortably.
Needs increasing up to something like 12 point Arial for clarity.

 

[Nicola3316]

* Hi I presume you are a Limited Co, in which case your lease is binding from date of signature as there is no cooling off period if you are trading as a Limited Entity. This again is stated in the lease agreement very clearly. The CCA only applies if you are trading as a Sole trader or Partnership.*

Hi Mark, No I was a sole trader so the CCA should have applied.

**Re your Min Monthly Service Charge, this is levied by FDMS NOT PaymentSense. You will always have two contracts with PaymentSense, one for the physical terminal (with 18m walk away clause if you are a Sole Trader or Partnership - your only liability should be a restocking fee), the other is for your Merchant Processing service which will always have a Min Monthly Service charge. It is the min in card charges that you must process so if you fall below a certain level your fees are topped up, if not then the min floor level is not applied. This is common practice across all providers not just PS/FDMS**

I understand NOW that the monthly service charge is levied by FDMS, however it was never mentioned by Payment Sense when I signed up (the one contract I was sent) and I never got any paperwork from FDMS to read to check so didn't know about it which was my gripe. Also the sales rep knew I only wanted the unit for the odd craft fair so in my opinion should have mentioned it.....

Also I used to be with Streamline before PS and never had the minimum charge so it wasn't something I was expecting.
Since my post I wrote an official complaint letter and have since sent the unit back. Its cost me a few hundred pounds but I am just glad to be rid of it and have bought a Worldpay Zinc unit which is far more appropriate for my needs.

I do have to give the complaints department their due, the lady I spoke to was very helpful and pleasant though.

 

[lyonsdown]

I gave up the terminal 2 years into what turned out to be a 5 year contract.They sent threatening letters asking for the 3 years remaining at £45 per month.I ignored them and they went away.
It's a con as the terminal could be bought for £20 on ebay (but of course it'd be unusable unless you could link it to a payment processor- nobody will do this unless you rent their terminal, at their overpriced fee)

 

[LMDServicesUK]

Glad you got sorted, our reps are told very clearly to explain all the fees when pitching the service , but human nature being what it is..

 

[BristolBiz]

I'm with Paymentsense. Their processing rates seem to be better than some, but I would never recommend them, and particularly would watch out for First Direct, who supply their terminals. There certainly is a slight of hand involved - you choose to do business with PS & somehow end up with the barge-pole organisation that is First Direct.

I would avoid Paymentsense just because of this association.

 

[LMDServicesUK]

I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding re PaymentSense. PS are an ISO and First Data and Global Payments are two of the Processors that they resell Services on behalf of.

In this industry you either have organisations such as WorldPay, EMS or GP who can provide the Merchant Services and the terminal or ISO's such as PS, Handepay, CardCutters to name a few who provide the front end service but work with a third party Aquiring Bank ( such as FD) to provide processing services.

Hope this helps clarify this confusion.