Complaint Review: Total Merchant Services

In searching for a better deal for the merchants in my portfolio I came across these guys about 3 years ago.  Every thing was fine until January 2010, after I started activly boarding merchants on their platform. Total Merchant Services claims they do not owe my residual payment(s) as the monthly amount is below $250 as stated in small print in our contract. There is a common law exception to the terms of the contract, namely waiver evidenced by performance, as they have paid me for 2 years under this same contract for monthly amounts less than $250. They contend that they can pick and choose when they will pay me if the amount is under $250 after I was told it was an oversight. Not an acceptable or ethical business practice.  They are not satisfied with keeping their portion of the split, they want it all! Further, there is no way to verify that they are paying correctly, as they only provide access to daily batch totals for your merchants-these never add up correctly on the residual report.  Of the people in their agent support staff there are 2 that would receive a beating if they spoke that way to any one in person - telephone tough guys!  The risk department is vague, and have lead to increased attrition of my merchant base-this was near 0 when I started with them. They have outright cancelled one merchant and make others jump through hoops to get their money, even when they are signed up as MO/TO. BEWARE - they will suck you in with "free equipment" and a low transaction fee - but they make it up by their split and you will lose money due to attrition and no residual payment.