Retail Merchant Services - anyone used them?

[bumperman]

I was 'phoned by this firm recently & their representative is visiting me next week, so I would like to know something about them.

We sell car parts & have had a Streamline card machine in the past(got rid of it for health reasons), but I'm better now and want to get back into accepting payments.

We're building our own ecommerce site for web sales, will use ebay/paypal for ebay sales, ebay collect customers will pay cash on collection, do we need a card machine?

Sorry if it's a bit confused!
bumperman

 

[sophieperrone]

Dear Bumperman,

if you are selling product online you don't need to have card machine as the person buying your product will not going to swipe the card, they can make payment using Credit card information requested by payment gateway (paypal or ebay).

One more suggestion:

If you are planning to sell car parts online, i strongly recommend integrating payment gateway on your website itself. That can help you to acquire customers who can be your returning customer and you will not have to pay high commission to ebay (they charge around 10%).

I am sure it will help, still if you find any query, you can contact me anytime.

 

[Rosewood Farms]

Hi Bumperman,

Did you sign up with RMS in the end? I was cold called & for some reason agreed to a visit. Stupidly, and without looking at the smallprint I signed their contract as the salesman gave me the assurance that I had a legal right to cancel within 30 days - this turned out to be a lie and a contact at RMS has now told me the contract is binding from the day it is signed.

The killer is that they charge £120 if you want to cancel at any time, even when the contract is up. They refuse to talk to me other than to collect the £120. Terrible, terrible, terrible company who are very good at duping you into signing away your bank account. There are much better companies out there that may look more expensive on their rates but they actually have a customer service ethos.

 

[Pricecrusher]

I understand fully what you require it is a payment gateway of your own PayPal is not cheap and payment can take some time to become cleared funds in your account. Also if you also take payments in your shop you would require a desktop.

We work as a independent broker for sme We don't charge for the services we provide as we would be paid a commission by any of the suppliers that we put forward. We can ensure that we provide you the end customer the best deal for your business needs.

Please feel free to take a look at our site we can do a quick fact find with yourself and determine where and what

 

[Retail Merchant Services]

Hi Rosewood Farms,

We're sorry that you feel unhappy with our service. As discussed in another thread, we have been in recent communication with you and tried to call you today but unfortunately we had to leave a message.

Our customer agreement does start from the day it is signed. This is in the benefit of the customer as unlike other providers, our service delivers much more than a card machine and merchant services account.

While any application is being processed, our customers have the immediate right to access a full range of member benefits, including:

• Free Tax & VAT Investigation Insurance
• A Free 24/7 Legal Business Helpline
• Discounted Telephone Services
• Discounted Business Broadband
• Discounted Business Insurance
• Discounted Business Bank Accounts
• And much more!

We cannot activate these benefits without an agreement in place so that we can correctly administer the account and benefits packages for our customers. If you have been told anything else by an individual sales representative, then this will be fully investigated.

At the conclusion of any agreement we do make a charge which covers the following:

• Secure Collection of the Card Machine
• Secure Approved Data Cleansing

This small charge is comparable to other providers and is raised in this one-off payment to prevent the need for us to increase our on-going rates, keeping them low for our customers, month after month, year after year.

When assessing a merchant services quotation, the most important cost-factor for most business is the day to day card rates, a small percentage point can mean a cost difference of thousands of pounds a year for many small and medium size businesses - that is what matters most and that is why our team work hard to keep these low, now and in the future.

We are proud of our exceptional commitment to customer services, as can be demonstrated from our three industry awards and our growing customer base of more than 30,000 customers.

You can call us on 0845 241 9960 between 08:45 until 21:00 Monday to Friday and from 09:00 until 17:00 on Saturdays.

 

[Rosewood Farms]

Thank you for your response, I can confirm that I did receive a message today by telephone however I have been too busy to call you back (hence answering this forum late at night), I will do so as soon as I can.

We haven't got a card machine from yourselves, it being a virtual terminal, so I will look forward to a reduction in my cancellation fee on that basis.

I normally do business by e-mail so that I have the details of such conversations to refer back to in case I mis-hear/understand when speaking on the telephone or face-to-face.

I understand from your website that you 'guarantee to beat your current price', which I take to mean you will beat your competitors prices for a comparable service, rather than you will beat the transaction rates only.

For information my current provider is offering;

- 3.3% transactions on credit cards more than RMS 1.4%
- 65p on debit cards more than RMS 21-22p
- £0 cancellation charges less than RMS £120
- £0 monthly fees less than RMS £17.95 + VAT
- A physical chip & pin terminal versus RMS a virtual terminal
- CNP service equal to RMS

However, I have just re-read my RMS membership agreement (to get the above figures) and noticed that the salesman had written VOID twice through 3. Cancellation charges and 4. Merchant Checklist before I signed it. I think that rather changes the position I am in.

I'll look forward to our conversation.

 

[Rosewood Farms]

A little more info; I also use Paypal who are currently offering a virtual terminal for £20 per month (versus RMS £21.54 per month) and no cancellation fees for 'data cleansing'. Their rates are as low as 1.4% + 20p per transaction (equivalent to 1.6% with an average transaction value of £100).

 

[Retail Merchant Services]

Thank you for your response, I can confirm that I did receive a message today by telephone however I have been too busy to call you back (hence answering this forum late at night), I will do so as soon as I can.

We haven't got a card machine from yourselves, it being a virtual terminal, so I will look forward to a reduction in my cancellation fee on that basis.

I normally do business by e-mail so that I have the details of such conversations to refer back to in case I mis-hear/understand when speaking on the telephone or face-to-face.

I understand from your website that you 'guarantee to beat your current price', which I take to mean you will beat your competitors prices for a comparable service, rather than you will beat the transaction rates only.

For information my current provider is offering;

- 3.3% transactions on credit cards more than RMS 1.4%
- 65p on debit cards more than RMS 21-22p
- £0 cancellation charges less than RMS £120
- £0 monthly fees less than RMS £17.95 + VAT
- A physical chip & pin terminal versus RMS a virtual terminal
- CNP service equal to RMS

However, I have just re-read my RMS membership agreement (to get the above figures) and noticed that the salesman had written VOID twice through 3. Cancellation charges and 4. Merchant Checklist before I signed it. I think that rather changes the position I am in.

I'll look forward to our conversation.

As we have previously discussed we are unable to discuss individual accounts or provide individual quotes on an open forum for the security and privacy of our customers. However, if you do return our call we will be more than happy to help you with your account.

As our agreements are carbon-copied we will be able to retrieve our copy from archives, if necessary, to assist you and to resolve this issue.

You can call us on 0845 241 9960 anytime from 08:45 today and we look forward to assisting you with your account.

 

[Retail Merchant Services]

A little more info; I also use Paypal who are currently offering a virtual terminal for £20 per month (versus RMS £21.54 per month) and no cancellation fees for 'data cleansing'. Their rates are as low as 1.4% + 20p per transaction (equivalent to 1.6% with an average transaction value of £100).

As discussed, we are unable to provide an individual quotation in an open forum or discuss specifics about a customer's account for data protection reasons. When you return our messages, we will be more than happy to help you with your account.

You can call us on 0845 241 9960.

 

[Rosewood Farms]

For information my current provider is offering;

- 3.3% transactions on credit cards more than RMS 1.4%
- 65p on debit cards more than RMS 21-22p
- £0 cancellation charges less than RMS £120
- £0 monthly fees less than RMS £17.95 + VAT
- A physical chip & pin terminal versus RMS a virtual terminal
- CNP service equal to RMS

They've just put a £100 welcome bonus in our bank!

 

[Rosewood Farms]

Good lord, RMS have just stepped it up a gear - I've just had an invoice, back dated to Monday, saying I have seven days (from the date of invoice) to pay up or face legal proceedings. What's more the cancellation fee in my contract is £100 and they've now charged me £180. The salesman has dissappeared into the ether (I only have an e-mail address and a mobile number). The letter clearly explains that the cancellation fee 'assists us to collect and refurbish the terminal' and to 'securely remove your financial data from the terminal' - it's a virtual terminal, it doesn't actually exist.

What a horrible way to do business.

 

[vchimp]

Hiya, are you still with RMS?

 

[Scorrier]

Good lord, RMS have just stepped it up a gear - I've just had an invoice, back dated to Monday, saying I have seven days (from the date of invoice) to pay up or face legal proceedings. What's more the cancellation fee in my contract is £100 and they've now charged me £180. The salesman has dissappeared into the ether (I only have an e-mail address and a mobile number). The letter clearly explains that the cancellation fee 'assists us to collect and refurbish the terminal' and to 'securely remove your financial data from the terminal' - it's a virtual terminal, it doesn't actually exist.

What a horrible way to do business.

Hi
We signed with them on the condition that our current provider (Streamline) couldn't provide the service for the same or Cheaper. Their rep Louise Searle told us that we had a 30 day cooling off period. We decided based on the streamline offer to cancel. We tried to contact the rep by phone, No answer. We left a message. No answer. We contacted R.M.S. by phone & were told to Email Elavon, which we did, within a couple of hours of signing the contract, telling them we wished to cancel. We continued to receive letters and Emails, the terminal arrived, but we did not open it and asked them to collect it. We were then asked to write them a letter cancelling, which we did. Yesterday we had an invoice for £1104 with a threat that non payment would result in Court. I must admit, I am looking forward to that! should be interesting.
I have written to them telling them I have no intention of paying anything, and have sent a copy to the Trading Standards at Milton Keynes, and to Gareth Poppleton one of their directors.

 

[Retail Merchant Services]

Hi Scorrier,
We are sorry you are not happy with the service you have been provided. We are fully committed to providing an excellent service to our customers and would like to assure you that this will be dealt with and fully investigated. Someone will contact you on Monday to resolve.

Kind regards,
Marketing Team- Retail Merchant Services

 

[Scorrier]

Hi Scorrier,
We are sorry you are not happy with the service you have been provided. We are fully committed to providing an excellent service to our customers and would like to assure you that this will be dealt with and fully investigated. Someone will contact you on Monday to resolve.

Kind regards,
Marketing Team- Retail Merchant Services

Hi
Thank you, but I do not wish to receive a phone call. However a letter of appology confirming that the charges are a mistake and will not be pursued would be welcome.
Should that happen, I will post on this forum that it had been done. I am sure a lot of others would appreciate the same.
Scorrier